Balancing the Equation
by Tozette
Summary: Sequel to Chemical Equation from an Objective Point of View . Sex, blood and gossip prevail. But with relationships, like everything else, there's a learning curve.
1. I Aftermath

Disclaimer: The manga/anime series, "Naruto" and any and all characters or place names pertaining thereto are the sole property of the creator and associated persons. The author of this story does not claim or aspire to own any of these. Any thoughts or opinions expressed by the characters in this piece of fanwork do not necessarily reflect those of the author or of the creator of the original series.

Thank you.

As always, pointing out characterisation flaws is much appreciated.

Oh, and if you're interested, which you may not be, watch for symbolism. There's plenty of it. :)

**Chapter One: Aftermath**

---------

The sunlight filtered through the uncurtained window and slanted across her face, painting red splotches inside her eyes. Tenten frowned sleepily. Why was the sunlight in her window? Her window didn't get proper sunlight until noon, at least.

She blinked herself awake, making an incoherent noise and rolling over. Sure, she could have gotten up, but she couldn't be bothered. It was only a week since the disastrous episode during which her mother had tried to marry her off to some loser farmer and she had had to take charge, and she was going to make the best out of the aftermath.

She'd told Gai-sensei that she'd felt mentally fragile after the sudden death of her beloved fiancé. Gai-sensei, who knew somewhere between little and nothing about women, had agreed blithely on the basis that she was somehow more fragile than her male counterparts. Neji had accused her of abusing his nurturing tendencies. Well, not in those words, exactly, but he'd said it, and she hadn't bothered arguing.

She supposed it looked like that, but she really was having trouble catching her breath after the past week of domestic hell, not to mention the continuing aggression from her mother, who was adamant that her profession was an evil, corrupting influence and who seemed to think Neji had had a hand in the killing of her suitor. Not likely, she thought dryly, wishing she could just get back into that sweet, oblivious state where one half-knows that one is asleep.

No, she'd been the one to rid herself of that problem the only way she knew how. She still wasn't sure she'd done the right thing. Neji had said once that she'd been _pragmatic_ and had left it there, apparently unwilling to discuss it further. She was grateful for the positive input, but she knew what Neji's version of "pragmatic" was, and the comment had only added to her own feelings that there had probably been a better, less _barbaric_ way to end it.

Totally aside from her mother and her dead ex-fiancé and all of the rest of the stupid baggage that went with that particular can of multi-coloured, radioactive and mutant worms, was that newest complication in her mangled personal life.

Although, she thought distantly, her relationship with Neji should probably not be referred to as a either a complication or a can of worms. Nor, she snorted to herself, could it be called a rainbow-lit bed of sweet-scented roses. She was trying, and he was trying (or so she assumed. It could have just been that he _looked_ like he was trying when he really wasn't at all. He did that sometimes) but trying didn't make it perfect.

But it worked, for the time being, which was the main thing. It was too hard to think of the future, when one or both of them could die next week. Probably her, but it wasn't impossible that someone would get the better of him in a fight...

_Tenten, you're rambling_, she thought to herself. _Time to get up_. She glanced back out the window, realising that it had to have been almost one o' clock.

She rolled out of bed, feeling the sunlight permeate her body with its insidious heat– summer had hit them full force a month or two ago, melting the spring chills until the only change in whether that they were going to get was an abrupt, humid thunderstorm.

She pulled on some clothing – shorts, since it was way, _way _too hot for her usual getup – fastened her weapons on and made her way into the kitchen, where her mother seemed to be making an effort to cook something. She frowned and scratched her head, feeling the tangles in her hair and not really caring.

"You were asleep?" her mother asked coolly.

"Uh, yeah." Tenten replied, wondering if it was a question that really needed to be asked. She was barely more than a zombie, after all.

"Well, here, tell me if this tastes alright," she said, turning sharply and offering Tenten the business end of a wooden spoon. It was covered in brown glop, which might have been okay, if it were supposed to be chocolate-based. But it smelt kind of ...citrus.

"Um, no it's really okay," she said, drawing her precious lips away from the spoon and its possibly lethal contents.

"Tenten, the _least_ you can do is try my food," her mother protested. "I let you do whatever you want – you go out and play with your silly little sharp toys and do silly, dangerous things all the time, but do you hear me com –"

_Complaining? Yes, _she thought_¸ all the time. _Tenten chose the lesser of the two evils and ate the glop.

"There. How is it?" her mother asked eagerly.

Tenten chewed, wondering if regurgitation was going to get her grounded. "Um," she mumbled. Her mother seemed to take this as positive encouragement and nodded, moving back to the stove.

Tenten decided to skip breakfast. Or lunch. Whatever.

The path to the area she trained in when she felt as though she needed to take out her aggression by herself was little-known and mostly deserted. It consisted of a tiny, overgrown pathway through yet more of Konoha's dense and overgrown forest – there was a reason they called it the "Leaf" village, after all.

Folklore had it that the first Hokage and the village founders had had to cut through the deep, humid jungle for seven days and seven nights before they could even begin to build. Tenten wasn't quite sure why they'd have decided to build there if it had really been that bad. People rarely let truth get in the way of a good story.

The place she made her way to was near the river, where the trees naturally thinned out, either by some fluke of nature or because they'd been cut down and the stumps overgrown, she didn't know. She did know that she'd contributed to it, having constructed a ring of standing logs with smooth, flat tops several feet off the ground. Lee had helped her build it early in the previous year.

Gai-sensei had suggested it as a training exercise for her two years before, wherein she would improve balance and agility by completing any number of her kata high off the ground, with punishment for failure being self-evident; the fall was taller than she was.

It also made for a challenge to spar atop if you were _ambushed_ by one of the _last people_ _on the planet_ that you felt like _dealing with_ at your own training place.

"I suppose you've been sitting there since eight," she muttered, leaping up onto the skinny logs to join him.

He shrugged. "Not long," he replied.

She waited. And waited. And glared. "If you're not here to say something useful..." she trailed off.

He cocked his head, eyeing her flatly. "Actually, I thought you might want someone to spar with," he said. He sounded irritated.

Oh, woe, she'd wounded his precious pride.

She shrugged, hoping to make amends for her quick tongue by replying. "Sure, I'd like that."

His eyes cleared a little, and she wondered if his chronic mood swings were really just an excuse to get her to reassure him that, yes, Neji, she does want you around, as long as you're not going to _sulk_.

They started out on the ring, dodging and swiping, almost evenly matched on account of her expertise in the environment. Neji got bored of her having something like the upper hand pretty quickly, though; he was _always_ in the fight to win the fight, no matter with whom or what for, and he drew her out into the surrounding forest where he knew he could beat her.

It wasn't as though she didn't _know_ that she shouldn't follow him – she did. She knew that when they got out of her ideal environment and into the denser forest her best attacks were almost totally ineffective (as though they weren't ineffective enough against him already) and that his ability to see through things was only going to help him, but she still followed. She was up for the challenge, whether she was going to win or not – the point in this was not so much the result as the way she got there, despite what Neji's opinion would have her believe.

So she dived through the underbrush, keeping close to the tree trunks so he couldn't randomly pop up from behind her, swerving manically in order to doge that tree that she was _sure_ hadn't been there a bare moment ago.

A _senbon_ whistled past her left shoulder as she threw herself back and she looked quickly for the others. _Damn it – stop thinking about it and just **do** it, or he's going to kill you by accident._ The unfortunate thing about having eyes that only saw _forward _was that she had a large blind spot. She'd never known it any other way, but her opponent had, and he was gaining on her. Really, really quickly.

She made an executive decision and left the ground. The branches were thick and solid on the lowest parts; there was no problem with them supporting her weight. Neji wasn't heavy enough to make it a problem for him, either, though, so it was a moot point. Actually, she thought irritably, he was seriously _underweight_.

_Keep your mind on business._

She was faster than him. And smaller, by a bit. She made a daring, terrifyingly abrupt halt and twisted off to the right at full speed. It was denser here and she acquired a number of scrapes and had to slow down so as to avoid losing an eye, but he might be slowed down further than her.

Of course, it was possible that he'd just drop down to the ground and race ahead.

An open-handed slap that looked like a swipe from a miffed kitten and felt like a speeding freight train knocked her out of the branches. She hit the cold forest floor on her back.

_Ouch_, she thought, but was unable to speak, temporarily winded. Fighting her body all the way, she staggered to her feet just in time to see Neji drop straight to the ground and use the momentum and surprise to lunge for her.

If she was hit by that, she knew, the match was very, very over. Until then, time was so slowed in her mind's eye that she had all the time in the world to think about it.

He would expect her to duck and she'd cop a mouthful of his sandal anyway. Not one of her favourite pastimes, although she indulged in it regularly. She could dodge, but he'd clip her side. The lesser of two evils, for sure, but...

Suddenly, she was out of time.

She jumped. Her oxygen-deprived muscles screamed. Neji's face registered surprise for a moment before he dropped, slid in the mud and landed a solid kick on her left thigh in an admirable show of fast thought. It hurt, but it wouldn't put her out of action. She retaliated with a barrage of strategically thrown shuriken – one handed, unfortunately, but she didn't have the time to mould chakra to her feet, and she needed to get him off her arse for a moment or two. _Something to work on_.

It was not to happen, apparently, since he was in her face, hissing like a mad animal, and she was flying through the air to be stopped only when she felt herself connect, side on, with the trunk of a tree. The impact stole her breath, and she heard a sharp pop somewhere in her neck.

_That **can't** have been a good noise_, she thought as she slid. Since she was so high up, it was not a gentle fall. She hit the ground in a heap.

"Fuck training," she muttered, resting her forehead on her knee for a long moment, swallowing and catching her breath. It hurt to breathe, which also wasn't a good sign. Shit, she definitely hadn't been training enough lately.

"Get up." It was funny how getting involved hadn't changed him. She was sort of thankful for it, really, when she wasn't whining about it. She knew he was good for her. And hell knew she needed some stability in her life.

Neji. Stable. Huh. _Must have hit that tree harder than I thought._

"Give me a second," she snapped. He smirked.

"Did I tire you out, Tenten?" he asked, sounding plausibly sincere. She was on her feet immediately with the strength born of anger. It was her ambition to be _the best_ and she would not be patronized like that. He knew she hated it; that was why he did it.

Of course, going hand-to-hand with Hyuuga mightn't have been the best idea, she thought belatedly, dodging one blow after another. The movements looked almost playful; light, open-handed slaps. As soon as she felt the fist one hit, she remembered vividly what it felt like to get hit by a maniac with a sledgehammer. Her eyes watered and her muscles cramped around the point of contact. Neji's eyes glittered oddly.

"Bastard," she hissed, trying to give as well as she got with an almost-dodged blow to the stomach. Neji was too close to get out of her way totally, but the hit was rendered almost ineffective as soon as he saw it coming. She was outclassed in taijutsu, but she couldn't get away unless she scored at least one hit, maybe more. Whatever it took to slow him down for a moment.

A quick feint and a punishing knee in the side of his head later, Tenten was a defendable distance away, performing a series of quick seals. Another moment, and Neji was dodging a barrage of sharp steel from all directions. She paused to catch her breath and saw one weapon tear through his shirt and slice the skin underneath.

_Brilliant._ She grinned, elated.

Predictably, it didn't discourage him. Instead, his face contorted into a snarl and he lunged forward, endangering both life and limb, to swipe at her neck. She, surprised by such recklessness, was caught off guard. The muscles under his touch burned and cramped viciously.

Tenten gasped and her hand flew to her neck. There was a hard jolt in her stomach and she staggered, unable to balance properly, unable to breathe.

Neji straightened, assumed the traditional stance and waited for her to either continue or yield.

_Like hell!_ She dropped to her knees and gasped again, slightly more theatrically – bluff. He might read it, but not fast enough. A moment later, Neji was missing more material form his shirt. Aside from a few scratches and a nonplussed expression, he remained the same. She snarled. Really, fighting an opponent she just _could not_ beat was frustrating. But it would be worse if he let her win.

There was no chance of that. Neji was enjoying himself too much.

His expression was haughty, but his eyes glittered beatifically. She met the gaze, swallowed, reflected gladly that he rarely lost his temper in a fight and watched as her mind dived back into the brilliant, murky dance of violence.

She had to retreat for long enough to execute a proper offence. _Bunshin no jutsu_ was useless, due to the ability of the _byakugan _to detect the division of chakra. Smoke bombs were also out; the terrain made too much noise and Gai-sensei had had Neji training blindfolded for years. Genjutsu was similarly negated by those damnable eyes.

Of course, she _was_ a bit faster than him, even if she couldn't see as well. Maybe... She was off, running, jumping, full speed ahead. It was sometimes hard to appreciate how hard it was to sprint through a forest. Tripping over would be a bad idea, although, at sixteen, it could easily be blamed on a fit of adolescent klutziness and an ever-changing body. Embarrassment aside, the bruises were incentive enough to keep her eyes on the road.

Thus, she was surprised when Neji hit the forest floor a bare metre in front of her, dropped down, and made an admirable effort to sweep her feet out from under her. She dodged it – barely – and managed not to fall flat on her face. Ah, the skill and grace of the kunoichi.

Neji used his momentum to spring forward, and he was _fast_, damnit, and placed the first of a fast-paced volley of hits. She dodged them, just, but the eighth connected soundly with her chest. She made the pained, tired effort to jerk away from the eleventh and failed to dodge the resulting – _painful_ – roundhouse to the ribs. Chest, chin, solar-plexus –_ jerk_ and _dodge _– _ow_, shoulder. She heard the final, loud _crack_ as his hand connected with her neck before she actually felt the blow.

At that point, she couldn't balance, couldn't see, couldn't tell which way was _vertical_, couldn't breathe properly and, now, had a mouthful of blood. So when Neji offered her his hand to help her up – a new and uncertain gesture at the best of times – she accepted gladly and did what any right-minded person would do. She punched him squarely in the jaw. The strength behind the punch was debatable, but the sentiment was clear.

He was either caught off-guard (not bloody likely, in her opinion) or being polite, because he allowed it to connect before cracking his neck and levelling a cool stare at her. She sighed.

"Yeah, alright. You win," she mumbled. He smirked.

"Of course," he murmured as though it hadn't been debatable. She snorted, eyeing his shredded top with perhaps pardonable pride. If Neji noticed, he ignored it.

She slumped to the forest floor, tired and filthy after what was less than fifteen minutes. She couldn't have kept it up for much longer, anyway. She leant against a tree trunk, staring up and the sky and listening grudgingly to the complaints that her abused neck made.

Neji settled in front of her, kneeling, relaxed. She envied his perfect posture, but knew that he'd probably had it beaten into him early, and she didn't really envy that part. She glared at him.

"Ow," she said emphatically. "You were rough."

"I was off," he admitted, reaching forward and touching her neck slowly.

"If you're gonna fix it, shouldn't you try turning on your eyes?"

"Turning on my eyes," he muttered flatly. "I'm not a television set, Tenten," his tone was stern.

She shrugged, feeling something in her shoulder crack. He frowned, giving in and "turning on" his eyes. The veins of the _byakugan_ were, she was told, intended to carry the vast supplies of chakra necessary to use the technique. They still looked sort of odd to her, although she found herself constantly fighting the urge to bite at them. She wondered what his reaction would be like if she told him that.

Neji leaned forward and glanced over her neck and shoulder. "Ah," he murmured, rubbing in circles at her neck. It was nowhere near where it hurt, but she figured he knew what he was doing.

"Is there a reason why fixing the damage seems to put me to sleep, but doing it in the first place hurts so much?" she asked, closing her eyes and tipping her head back. He made an irritated noise when she moved.

"Um," he muttered, glaring at something in her neck and pressing harder. She purred. "Maybe your body likes healing," he suggested half-heartedly. She flicked one eye open and gave him a Look.

"Uh, sure," she said. Something in her neck clicked, offering a delicious release of tension and what seemed to be a large dose of endorphins.

"Are you going to tell me why you're still slacking off, or am I just going to guess?" he asked finally. That was why he was really there. The stress-relief was just the side dish.

"Is this what you've been building up to for the past five days, Neji?" she asked, yawning. She half-wished he'd fix whatever he'd done to her stomach, but she knew it would wear off in a day or two, and, besides, that was an exercise better left for behind closed doors and soundproofed walls.

Neji didn't answer, although something sullen flashed behind his eyes briefly. She snorted. "You could have just said so," she muttered. "I have to work again tomorrow, anyway, so I don't see why you waited 'til now to complain," she pointed out.

Neji frowned. "I didn't think I was complaining," he said shortly. She raised an eyebrow. If she turned her head and squinted, she could see that as an admission that he'd been worried about her and her recent reticence. Practically a proposal, really. Well, maybe she was taking it a little far, but, with Hyuuga Neji, a girl would take what she could get.

She shrugged. "I kind of wanted some time to deal. There's the whole... Ishin thing, first," she ticked off her list, "and then there's _mother_, who has been irritating enough to make me _want_ to go on a long, boring surveillance mission for some bored and delusional woman who thinks her husband is cheating on her again," she rolled her eyes. _That_ particular mission had become the Team Benchmark for what was Really, _Really_ Boring. "And then there's _you_, and I don't even know _what's _going on here," she waved, indicating the general _thing_ of things.

Neji raised one eyebrow. She wondered if he actually shaped them, or if they were just _naturally_ perfect. She gave that thought up as way too depressing for that very moment, consoling herself with the fact that at least he didn't _act_ as though he knew he looked better than she did. Although, if he ever _did_...

"Aa," he muttered. "You took a week off work because you were confused," he said.

Tenten grunted. "You make me sound stupid," she said blankly. The sunlight dappled her dirty legs and arms through the leaves. The places it touched felt like they were burning up already. She was drenched in sweat, and her clothing showed it in thick, dark lines. Neji looked like he'd just taken a brisk, refreshing walk in the woods. "Don't you burn?" she asked, glancing at his paper-white skin.

He blinked. "Um," he said, "If you set me on fire, why, yes, I probably would," he said slowly, "but I don't usually combust on command."

She shook her head dismissively, privately wondering why he hadn't tried to have her committed yet.

"Never mind," she muttered.

He didn't.

They sat there, watching each other.

"What kind of missions have you been doing?" she asked finally.

"C class," Neji sniffed. "Tsunade sent me off to kill someone for a B last week, but that was it as far as interesting goes."

Tenten frowned, picking up a leaf from the ground and tearing it in half, then into quarters, then eighths... "Aren't you supposed to do those missions with three people?"

Neji shrugged awkwardly. "You're supposed to stick with your cell," he said at last, "and at that time, it was me, Lee, and Gai-sensei. We didn't take Lee, Tsunade's instructions. We're not supposed to soil her model warriors of peace and light," he said sarcastically. Tenten thought he sounded a little bitter.

She nodded, understanding more than the sentiment the fact that Lee was grotesquely unsuited for a no-questions-asked killing. He was all for the moral high ground and The Right Thing, ideals that neither phased nor affected Neji. He didn't bother them (at least not until someone like Lee or Naruto came along and decided to bother him about them), they wouldn't bother him. A good system. She often wished she could emulate it. But maybe Neji got sick of being treated as though he didn't have ideals of his own. Hmm.

"Eh," she replied, sounding almost as non-committal as she felt. "Must be a good one or two coming up, then," she said.

"That's flawed logic," Neji pointed out. "Textbook, really. In fact," he frowned, "statistically, it makes it _less_ likely that there's an interesting mission coming up."

She shrugged. "You never know," she pointed out. "Superstition often works just as well as _logic_," she said it like it was a dirty word, "when you believe it hard enough."

Neji snorted. "That makes it delusion, not superstition."

Tenten wasn't up for arguing with that. "Alright."

"Tenten?"

"Yeah?"

"It's time to stop slacking off."

"...alright."

--------------------------------

Three weeks later, Ino frowned at her friend, examining her midsection. "You don't _look_ any different," she commented, cocking her head and squinting.

They were in the Yamanaka flower store, mostly because Ino had blackmailed Tenten into helping out for their off-duty period. It was having a sale, which Tenten supposed was due to the kind flower-raising weather, despite Ino's insistence that her parents just wanted her to suffer. More to the point, Tenten suspected, was that St Valentine's Day was just over a week away, and with Inoshi off on an A-rank and her mother on gate duty that week, Ino would have been alone in the shop.

Usually, Tenten would have spent the work-free time training, but Neji was in the country of Wind, cementing an alliance with the feudal lord there. He'd been three days, and he wasn't due home until the next day. Tenten missed him – more than she'd expected, actually, since she hadn't realised that she'd spent every free second training with him until she'd become abruptly aware that she had all this _free time_ and nothing to do with it – but she could deal with it.

She was a little suspicious of Tsunade's choice of diplomat, however.

Tenten scowled at her alleged friend. "I'm _not_ pregnant," she snapped.

"Really?" Ino asked, hefting a large potted plant to move it into the sun. Tenten grabbed the nearest one that looked the same and moved it, too. It was easier for her. She supposed that substituting hard labour for all of her social interaction for almost the past month might have had something to do with that. "But you said you skipped –"

Tenten flushed and cut her off quickly. "False alarm," she said, her anger draining as she realised that Ino probably did have some basis for her concern. "A wake up call for me, though," she said after a moment, looking to Ino to judge what she needed to do next.

"I'll bet," Ino said with a laugh. "If it had been me –"

Tenten glanced at her. "If it had been you?" she prompted.

Ino set down her plant and shook her head, flicking her hair out of her eye. "Well, it wouldn't be me, would it?" she asked.

Tenten shrugged. "More likely to be you than me," she pointed out. "Without your help, it wouldn't have happened at all," she added, mostly to boost Ino's ego. The blonde had seemed oddly depressed lately – although, Tenten had to admit, she'd never really known her before the whole Engagement Fiasco, as they'd come to refer to it.

Ino had wanted it to be called the Romeo and Juliet Affair, but Tenten had pointed out that Paris had been a farmer, not a nobleman, that Romeo and Juliet hadn't exactly been suicidal and hysterical, respectively, and that, had Montague been strictly opposed to the idea, they'd have had _no_ chance of elopement.

Ino looked up. "Yeah, I guess," she agreed. "But..."

She was cut off by the door banging open as though a tornado had hit, revealing Sakura, who was tugging a bewildered-looking Naruto along by the wrist. She yanked him over to the counter, where Ino gestured for Tenten to stand. The brunette risked a glare in her direction. The cash register in the flower shop was practically an antique, and the absurd, twenty-seven and two-thirds percent discounts would not help her in her latest attempt to get it to work.

Sakura slammed her hand onto the counter, tugging the confused boy closer to it. Her look was almost predatory. "This boy," she said in something like vicious triumph – really, the amount of time the girl was spending with Tsunade-sama and Shizune was starting to show – "Is taking a girl out tonight."

"Really?" Tenten asked blandly, eyeing Sakura's splayed fingers warily. "Can I help you, then?" she directed her question to Naruto.

"Er..." he looked as though he didn't quite know why he was there, but was far too afraid of Sakura's wrath to ask.

Ino grabbed something from several different water-filled buckets that were already bursting with floral colour – pre-cut flowers always ran out on Valentine's Day – and wrapped them in paper of black and white an a purple so pale it was nearly white.

"Wildflowers," she said, pressing them upon him with the kind of fervour that made Tenten wonder if whatever Sakura had wasn't catching, "Are what you want to get her. No roses; you might scare her off."

Naruto accepted the flowers dumbly. He sniffed them. "They don't smell," he said blankly.

"They're not supposed to," Sakura said with confidence, inspecting the bouquet herself.

Tenten, among much shuffling and cursing and eventual resorting to a calculator and manual manipulation, managed to ring up the purchase.

By the time Naruto had paid and Sakura had dragged him off to their next destination, Ino was laughing aloud at her and Tenten had professed, not for the first time, that the godforsaken machine just plain _hated_ her.

Ino waved it off, promising that she'd make the next sale. "Seriously, though..." she trailed off, glancing sideways at her companion. "Did you actually tell him?"

"Tell who what?"

Ino rolled her eyes as if to inform the world that Tenten was an idiot. It was effective enough to deepen the brunette's scowl. "Tell Hyuuga about your, ah, false alarm."

Tenten stared at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly parted. She licked her lips. "... I don't think he'd like that idea very much," she said carefully, "so I thought it was best to be certain." She paused. "Why are you so interested in this, anyway?" she asked curiously.

Ino shrugged. "No reason."

Tenten frowned at her, realising that her mood had taken a downturn with each person wanting flowers for his or her _date_. It clicked. She sighed, scratching the back of her neck. How did one broach such a subject?

"I don't suppose you'd be trying to live out a romance vicariously through me?" she asked.

Ino glared at her.

"Because, you know... we're really not the best example. You should try, er... Well, I won't say Shino and Kiba. Um... probably not Naruto, either. Sakura and L – never mind. Maybe we _are_ the best example..." she trailed off in wonder.

Ino's glare was becoming sentient. Sentient, and scary.

"Are you done?" she asked.

Tenten frowned. "Nope," she said. "I think I've had all of the happy couples I can stomach for one morning," she declared, "so you're coming with me for lunch."

Ino glanced at the sun outside the window. It was early for lunch, but she suspected that Tenten felt enough as though she owed her something that she wouldn't let go until they'd had this talk. She was stubborn like that.

"Alright," she agreed, removing her apron and dumping it over the counter. Tenten followed suit, and they hung the _Out to Lunch_ sign on the door as they left.

It turned out that when Tenten said _lunch_, she meant _tea and sugar_. They stopped at a little European-style café, where Tenten ordered some strange, sharp tea that Ino had never heard of before.

"I didn't know you were a tea connoisseur," Ino mocked, sipping her own. It was a little _too_ sharp for her tastes.

"I'm not," Tenten responded defensively and refused to elaborate, instead changing the subject to one that would undoubtedly make _Ino_ uncomfortable rather than herself. "So," she said with a smile, "tell me about your woes." It was a wonderful change of pace, really.

Ino rolled her eyes and made an aggravated little noise in her throat, pretending that she didn't love the attention. "It's awful," she began, taking another sip of her tea out of courtesy to Tenten's odd tastes. "Horrific. I've never hated seeing couples so much in my entire life."

Tenten nodded sagely. "I've always hated seeing saccharine couples around the place, but I think I know what you mean. February is the worst time for it, too," she considered.

Ino shrugged. "It's... you and Neji, first, which was both terrifying and exciting, what with the whole Romeo and Juliet thing," Tenten almost opened her mouth to refute that; there was no way in hell that what they had was out of a Shakespeare play, and if it was, it would be more like the Taming of the Shrew than Romeo and Juliet... but she decided to allow Ino to run her mouth off instead. It sounded like she needed it.

"...and then Sakura and Lee, which was... a little odd... and Kiba and Shino just came out of _nowhere_. Naruto and Hinata are a little easier to understand, since she's loved him, for, like, _forever_, but I never thought he'd have the observational skills to actually _do_ anything about it, you know?"

Tenten brought her cup to her lips to hide her smile. "I think Iruka-sensei had something to do with that," she said. Actually, she _knew_ that Iruka-sensei had had something to do with that, because Gai-sensei had been bawling over the other man's incredible perceptiveness and subtlety just a few days ago. Maybe he had a thing for him.

Ino shrugged. "Whatever. It's just... I feel all left out now," she said, focusing the conversation back onto her own issues with the ease of much practise.

Tenten nodded. She considered this for a long moment or two, taking the time out to refill her cup. Ino raised an eyebrow. "I suppose," Tenten decided, "that you need to find yourself a boyfriend. Just to, you know... pass the time."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Can't," she said dully. "I'm saving myself for Sasuke, remember?"

Tenten snorted. "You're not ser – you _are_ serious."

"Great second guess."

That posed a problem. "Ino..."

"What?" Ino sniffed. "I'm allowed to have ambitions, aren't I?"

Tenten sighed and nodded. "Of course you are," she agreed weakly. She gulped tea. "Well," she said with a heavy sigh. "I've got to get going."

Ino looked up in alarm. "What? Why?"

Tenten threw some change down onto the tabletop and rose from her seat. "If it's gotta be Uchiha Sasuke," she said over her shoulder, "It's gotta be Uchiha-stick-up-the-arse-Sasuke."

Ino grabbed at her arm, ignoring her insult to The Best Man in the Known Universe (although, really, Neji wasn't _too_ bad, she supposed, if you had to go for one of _those_ types). "I appreciate the thought, Tenten, but couldn't it wait until after the week's out?" she asked, batting her eyelashes.

"No," Tenten said firmly, removing her friend's hands from her person. "I'm on a tight schedule."

"Eh?" Ino asked, bewildered.

"Either you'll be together before Valentine's, or he's gay." She slipped away with a grin and a wink, and Ino wondered what sort of humiliation she'd just unwittingly signed up for.

She really should have gone along with her father's one-time drunken idea of her marrying Chouji. It made way, way more sense than this.

--------------------------------

Eep, I apologise for the mammoth author's notes on this chapter in advance, but I feel that you deserve fair warning.

Thank you for reading thus far. It is against my better judgement to post this so early, since I'm not at all certain when the next part will be up – I haven't written it yet. I hope the infrequent updates won't be traumatizing for anybody.

I should probably warn you all that this fic, as well as continuing the NejiTenten amusement, contains SasuIno, a pairing I haven't seen much of around. I suspect that this is because people aren't to hot on it, but I sort of think they'd work out if they developed right.

So, um, please, keep an open mind, and don't whine about the pairing _too_ much, because the story's already been _planned_, you know? Well, sort of. I'm more of the, "WOW! AN _IDEA?_" type...

Aside from that, there will be many NejiTenten scenes, and I am trying desperately to keep Neji as in character as possible, although, having never read past the age skip, I may not have either of them as exactly correct as any of us would like.

I do appreciate reviews, but I'm terrified that there will be much whining about the SasuInoness that will continue through the text. :bows: I'm sorry, but I really do want to see if I can make the pairing work, even though it will _have_ to be forced upon Sasuke because he doesn't know what's good for him... : )

So, please, comment where you wish. Flames are welcome; the nights are getting colder down here.


	2. II My Objective

See first chapter for disclaimer

Thank you.

**Chapter Two: My Objective**

---------

First off, in any mission, it was important to have a goal. This, of course, was obvious. She nodded to herself. The next part was the method. To begin, she would have to eliminate all competition. Female competition had all but eliminated itself with the recent pair-up spree undertaken by the relevant age-group of the female part of Konoha's population, so she could be fairly safe in ignoring that.

The males that would be interested in a sulky, dark-eyed, broody boy of Sasuke's age and aesthetics were too numerous to list, so she decided to see if she couldn't eliminate these possibilities from the source first, which would mean somehow finding out if Sasuke was, in fact, as gay as he looked.

Tenten had never been a rabid Sasuke fangirl. She hated to think ill of Ino, but she'd always prided herself of having more brains than hormones. As far as she was concerned, it would take a severe deficiency in the former and inordinately large amounts of the latter to become One of Them.

However, it was important in any such mission to know exactly what she was dealing with, and his fangirls were often the best source. Knowing few well enough to approach, she decided to crash Lee's date over lunch to ask a few questions.

It was sort of cute that he'd taken her to a nice place – overdone, of course, but Sakura was still trying to keep up with his litany of sincere, sweet compliments after years of teasing and rejection and she was acting as though she wasn't quite sure he was telling the truth, or even addressing her at all – for lunch, and she was loth to interrupt their general cuteness to bring up _this_, of all things, but it was for the mission.

They were tucked away in a dark corner, Lee wearing – dear goddess – jeans and a (green) tank top and looking halfway to normal, and Sakura looking as though she'd been aiming for _Eye-Numbingly Gorgeous_ and overachieved, hitting _Goddess of Hot_ instead (a state that Tenten had only achieved once before, but had decided to repeat at some time in the very near future, because it really did make it easier to face down Neji and his overwhelming prettiness when one was confident in one's _own_ prettiness and she supposed that this was why more aesthetically-oriented women said that one should never date a man who knew he was prettier than oneself) and it was cute and sweet and Lee looked _dumbstruck_ and she felt guilty already.

But, as either of her team members could tell you, Tenten-with-a-mission was Tenten-with-an-obsession. It was her way of keeping up, and, with the chronic overachievers she'd surrounded herself with, it was all she could do to stay on even footing.

She smiled brightly as she walked over to them, and Lee, recognising her expression as about-to-cause-unfortunate-but-necessary-mayhem immediately, welcomed her warily. Sakura looked a little put out, which pleased him because it meant that she didn't welcome an interruption to their date, but distressed him as well because he didn't want to see her upset or miffed in any way. So while Lee was exceedingly diverted by his conflicting emotions and took a moment out to think them through, Tenten pounced.

Sakura was obviously surprised. Tenten's no-nonsense expression and notepad told her that she'd decided to take up Sasuke-hunting for real.

"Um, Tenten... what about Neji?"

"...what _about_ Neji?" she demanded. "Oh. You think I should bring him in on this, too?" Tenten frowned, expression becoming a little vacant as she considered the idea. It was a good one, but she doubted he'd go for it. He'd hiss and spit and tell her that she was being frivolous and stupid. She might ask anyway.

Sakura blushed violently at the idea that she _would_ consider it – although, admittedly, it might be an interesting (read as: steamy) sight, Neji and Sasuke... – particularly since Tenten had never struck her as a particularly promiscuous girl before.

"It's not a bad idea," Tenten said, and Sakura felt the overwhelming desire to just allow herself to pass out – Lee would definitely take care of her, she had recently learnt. After all, he'd said it himself. Repeatedly. "But it'll take me a while to convince him to go for it. Or even let me talk about his going for it." She frowned, then glanced at Lee when he shifted restlessly and raised an eyebrow in her direction. Those eyebrows meant business.

"I digress," she said. "Now. First and foremost, is Sasuke open to the idea of a heterosexual relationship in any way, shape or form?"

Sakura cocked her head. "You know," she said, after a significant look from Lee, which she responded to with a grin. "Naruto could probably answer that better than I could," she said, tapping her cheek with a nail grown long and painted forest green.

Tenten raised an eyebrow, not exactly sure if that was an excuse to get her to leave or an authentic suggestion. "Really?" she asked.

Sakura nodded. "They're... much closer than you'd think," she said with an exasperated smile at the thought. And then she turned back to Lee and began to totally ignore her.

Tenten bowed out. No doubt Lee was going to be curious about both her interruption of the date he'd been talking about for the past week (she was glad Neji hadn't been around to destabilise the whole situation while he was ranting) and her sudden interest in Uchiha-a-kunai-up-my-arse-wouldn't-make-me-twitch-Sasuke, but that could wait.

Now, where was she going to find Naruto?

--------------------------------

Naruto was to be found at his home, otherwise known as the Ichiraku Ramen Bar. Tenten bought him ramen in exchange for information. Though the information was squished in between long, loud complaints and insults on Sasuke's professional integrity, ability, character, looks, unhygienic habits and probable parents, it was there. Tenten considered actually thanking Sakura for the tip-off, quite certain that there was nobody else that would have guessed that Sasuke's self-proclaimed number one rival would know so much about his character.

But Naruto, between mouthfuls and insults, managed to paint her a fairly concise picture of a boy who was aggressive and angry and hard to impress and more than a little thick sometimes, who had money, and sass, and looks and potential, but was also scared and angry and ready to push people away because he just didn't trust anyone. His picture was so deeply buried in its own angst that it couldn't lift its head up out of its private cesspit of doom for long enough to breathe in the fresh air – well, not unless Naruto shovelled him out by beating him senseless, but this didn't seem to happen unless something really important was on the line, and Tenten didn't even want to know what the hell Naruto was referring to by "that damn fox-bitch".

Naruto's image of Sasuke was not at all sympathetic, and Tenten had to agree, despite knowing that she had no right to judgement here, that most of these problems were probably the brat's own damn fault. But, still, it allowed her to develop a new and different image of Sasuke.

She'd known the Uchiha story – aside from the fact that Sasuke was Neji's eighth cousin once removed, who _didn't_? – but she'd never really bothered looking beyond the bitter, depressed, _impolite_ little shit she occasionally ran into hovering around the graveyard on his days off.

So Sasuke had some problems – _nah, you think? _Said her mind, having spent too much time around Neji for its own good – but it wasn't as though they were insurmountable. Not at all. And it sounded rather as though he could use someone stubborn and cheerful and, well, _Ino_ around.

At the very least, Tenten knew that she could find some way to exploit his pride. The arrogant, prideful types were fast becoming her specialty. And, after all, that kind of person was likely to be very dependent on the first person he tried to trust. She frowned, wondering at his dependence on Naruto and thinking that maybe the blonde sort of knew it semi-consciously, that it was the sort of thing that neither would mention and both would accept. She decided not to go there. It didn't really matter, unless he _did_ turn out to be gay, which was different again.

She nodded to herself. If she could ask Neji about the situation obliquely (unlikely, but possible), and he actually answered (the same again), maybe she could get the opinion of somebody a little more inclined to understand Sasuke on the matter.

Or maybe she should use Ino's fallback and ask Shikamaru.

Hmm...

--------------------------------

Hokage-sama's office was cluttered with papers and... Empty saki bottles, along with a few pictures that she had to assume came from Jiraiya.

Charming.

Anyway, Lee and Neji were already in attendance. Lee greeted her enthusiastically with a 'thumbs up' and a blinding smile while Tsunade shot her a cool look.

"Now that you've joined us, Tenten, we can begin your briefing. The mission is a simple one, really," she tossed Neji, self-proclaimed and generally unchallenged team-leader (unless Lee broke out in a rash of Team Equality), a file with a photograph. "This is the man that you need to protect."

"Can he afford the mission?" Neji asked dubiously.

"The picture is somewhat outdated," Tsunade said. "He has come into a... windfall of money since then."

"So he's a criminal?" Tenten asked, peeking over Neji's shoulder. Lee's presence on her other side radiated outrage at the suggestion that he should protect a criminal.

"Not as such," Tsunade said slowly. "He's being targeted by assassins."

"Assassins?"

Tsunade sighed. "Ninjas," she admitted gravely.

None of them asked why a jounin wasn't being sent. They all knew that they couldn't afford to take them off the A-class missions – even Gai-sensei now, who'd been commandeered for something involving high secrecy and many dramatic poses and was thus not around in the village to support Lee in his newest dating adventures, a fact that Sakura seemed very grateful for – and that they could afford even less to give up a B-class paycheque.

Tsunade sighed. "While we are not, strictly speaking, sure why he's being targeted, it is fairly clear-cut. He seeks to marry a woman named Mizuko, and, while he had her father's consent, it seems that she wasn't particularly enamoured of the idea," she paused pointedly. She didn't look at Tenten. Tenten swallowed.

"You're to stop the assassins. Ordinarily, you'd just get rid of the source of the problem – the woman – but in these circumstances, that's obviously counterproductive. I've organised to be paid for every assassin that you kill."

Neji nodded. Lee's outrage didn't seem to have diminished much.

Tenten stared at her, feeling anxious and edgy. What _was_ this? She swallowed her fears. It was Tsunade's way of making a point. "I understand," she said.

"Good," Tsunade's face softened for a moment. "That's good. Well," the blonde sighed, slumping irritably back against her overfull desk, "it's not of _vital_ importance to Konoha and, although the money would be ... _useful_ ... we need you three more. So if you can't do it, or it gets to the point where you can no longer sustain damage without casualties, abort it. Got it?" Her eyes narrowed and flickered between Neji and Lee.

Privately, Tenten thought that if Tsunade wanted either of them to turn back if they didn't think they could do it, neither of them would ever, ever turn back. Neji wouldn't because he was prideful and possessed of a chronic disability to admit to flaws and Lee wouldn't because he was just that optimistic, determined and confident.

Both of them nodded. Tenten rolled her eyes.

"Technically, it should be A-class," she admitted, and it was obvious that she didn't like what she was about to say, "but you're possibly the best-suited group for the kind of combat you're likely to run into, and we cannot afford to –"

"We understand, Hokage-sama." Neji cut in.

"Okay, get out of here. And if you see Kakashi, tell him that I'm _still_ waiting on his report." Tenten wondered why they might have reason to see Kakashi, but she didn't argue.

They left through the window, as was traditional – only _amateurs_ actually used the _door_ –and dropped to the pavement outside. The heat hit them full-force. Tenten sighed. Neji fell into step next to her, while Lee did his pre-mission Dance of Enthusiasm. Bloody hell.

"Just watching him is making me hot. Maybe we could cut off his legs," Tenten suggested, fanning her face.

"It wouldn't make a difference," Neji pointed out half-heartedly. She glanced over at him – introspective and irritated, she decided, although it was difficult to tell. She wondered why – this mission was probably a bit higher than what they were, strictly speaking, qualified to complete, and they'd get paid accordingly. Plus, they'd get to make heads roll. What was there to dislike?

Tenten decided not to pursue it. If he wanted to tell her, he would. She nodded in agreement. "You're right," she muttered. "Maybe we could decapitate him."

"I think it would take a while for his body to realise it was dead. Like a chicken."

Tenten snorted, suddenly besieged by the image of a headless, feathered humanoid in Lee's outfit, bleeding from the neck like an erupting volcano and running around maniacally.

When Lee calmed down and joined them, even though his eyes were still on fire and his gleaming, sparkling heart of youth and wonder was showing itself in every flowery and less-than-concise sentence, Tenten considered him sane enough for conversation. Sanity was sort of optional in their cell.

"What do you think?" she asked him cheerfully.

Lee bounced. And bounced. And _bounced._ He actually made her kind of dizzy.

"I think it's a _brilliant_ opportunity to express ourselves!" he announced. Passers-by shied away and gave them strange looks. The ones that recognized them nodded knowingly, murmured something containing the word, _Maito,_ and turned away.

Sometimes Tenten wondered why she was the token normal one. Unless she wasn't the token normal one, and it was really Lee. She glanced back at him. Nah.

"That's not what I meant. Do you think you should be defending a man who's still trying to force himself on a girl that so obviously doesn't want him?" she asked casually.

Lee frowned. "Well... no," he admitted, one finger on his chin on an exaggerated "thinking" pose, "but he shouldn't die for it, should he?"

"So you _don't_ think he deserves to die for totally _ruining_ some poor girl's _life_?" she said in outrage, then bit her lip. That might have been a bit far. Neji was looking at her with a knowing little smirk. Nothing like her total humiliation to make him happy, she reflected bitterly.

"Um, Tenten, I'm glad that you're so... passionate about this mission," Lee began slowly, inching away. Shit. Maybe she really _wasn't_ the normal one?

"Um, that didn't quite come out right. Ignore me, okay?" she said, shaking her head. Gah. "Too hot."

Lee frowned. "Right," he agreed. "So, what does... Mizuko... look like, Neji, my beloved team mate?"

"I'm not your beloved anything," Neji insisted, handing over the photographs.

Lee pouted, and then glanced at the photo of the girl. His eyebrows shot up. "What a beautiful woman," he said, sounding dumbstruck. "Little wonder he wants to marry her."

Tenten, intrigued enough by Lee's statement to rise from her introspective anti-normalcy ranting, snatched the picture from him. The girl, she had to admit, was pretty hot. In a dark-eyed, movie-star seductress kind of way. She had thick, chocolate hair, pale mocha skin and a face made of sharp, appealing angles.

"Huh. She's pretty, alright," she muttered.

Neji glanced at the picture over her shoulder. "She's alright."

Tenten's eyes narrowed and she quickly put the picture of the man to the top of the pile. She blinked at it once, twice. He was... sort of cute, in an effeminate kind of way, with all that long, dishwater blonde hair, and those big green eyes and milky white skin.

"Ooh, now _he's_ cute," she said, conveniently forgetting that he was a total bastard and that she hated him and passing the photo back to Lee.

Lee scrutinized it. "Very beautiful," he agreed, nodding. Neji stopped glaring at Tenten in favour of giving Lee an odd look. He probably could have done both at the same time, but it wasn't worth the effort.

"... What?" Lee asked. "I'm allowed to find someone aesthetically pleasing without being actively attracted to them, aren't I?" he asked defensively.

Sometimes, Neji wondered if _he_ wasn't the token normal one.

--------------------------------

After the rest of the competition had been eliminated by stalking boldly into the lounge area preferred by the jounin and requesting sweetly to speak with Kakashi, who, a mixture of perturbed and amused at the extent this apparent Sasuke fangirl would go to in order to garner information on her victim, told her that, although Sasuke was introverted enough to have an interest in males, he was certainly interested in females (Tenten decided to leave it at that, feeling rather half-arsed and hopeless about making certain that Sasuke wouldn't hook up with a male).

She thanked him for his time, and, ignoring Genma's _what-the-hell-are-you-up-to-now_-flavoured stare of boredom and Gai-sensei's wailing about _defecting to the enemy_, exited the lounge area into the foyer, and out onto the dusty streets. She let her feet take the lead; they knew where to go.

The markets were a mess of people, brightly-coloured objects, salesmen bawling their wares at her and waving useless junk under her nose, but Tenten was more than happy to get lost in the crowd on her way to the flower shop for work. It offered her a comforting kind of anonymity.

That was one thing down. The other part of the method was, of course, the plan itself. She could tie him up, chain him down and beat him until he understood that he really was destined to be with Ino, but she suspected that that would take too long. She could drug him, maybe, and allow Ino to take over his care until he was feeling better and hope that they'd somehow bond.

Or, she could forcibly set them up on a date and hope that they'd decide that they liked each other's company enough to put up with more of the same... or that Ino realised that she really didn't like him because he was a cast-iron arrogant prick and she really didn't need that.

Privately hoping for the latter to occur over the former, Tenten forced a grin onto her face and entered the flower shop, waving cheerfully at Ino and pulling the spare apron from its hook.

"Jeez, am I glad to see you," the blonde said almost immediately. "I thought for a second that it might have been _another_ customer. We've had fifty-seven sales, and it's not even one," she groused, waving to the record book beside the ancient, evil cash register.

Tenten's eyebrows shot up. "Wow. Okay. What do you need help with?"

"Come get this big one, here – no, no, no, careful with the dirt; it's imported – yes, Tenten, _imported dirt_ – don't give me _that_ look– _**hel­**-_lo. What do _you _want?"

Tenten turned to see Neji's flat white eyes. From the look in them, she guessed she was supposed to be thinking, _oh, shit_, but couldn't find reason to do so.

"Nothing to do with flowers," he barked at her, and Ino raised an eyebrow, huffed and sighed.

"Well, I'll just go do some orders out the back, shall I?" she asked with unusual empathy.

"Good idea," Tenten muttered, setting the pot back down and leaning casually against the counter.

It didn't help that he, as always, didn't have a single hair out of place and goddess knew that he didn't look like that through effort, so maybe he'd just come out of the fucking _womb_ looking perfect, and there she was, leaning against the counter, wearing a stained apron with a fresh dirt smear across it, pale and messy because she hadn't bothered doing anything to her hair since she'd woken up either and, unlike some people, she didn't look perfect all the time.

"So?" she asked pointedly.

"There's an interesting rumour going around," Neji said, and she knew from long years of experience that _interesting_ on a mission often meant _remnants of a torture chamber, mutilated and rotting bodies included, don't let Lee see it_. "Since it involves you rather... intimately," his tone lingered on the word with contempt, "I thought you should know."

Dear god. "I'm sure you'll get to the point sometime soon," she said, feigning nonchalance. His look told her that she shouldn't have bothered.

"You, me and Uchiha having a "secret love affair"," he deadpanned. His face didn't change, but there was a muscle that started twitching in his cheek. Tenten blinked.

"Have you, uh, managed to trace the source of this rumour?" Tenten asked.

"Haruno swears you told her directly." He said neutrally, but with the faintest edge of _am-I-really-flypaper-for-idiots-or-does-the-whole-universe-just-hate-me _in his tone.

"Oh. _Oh!_ Oh, shit."

He blinked. It was the most emotion she'd seen in him in a week. She frowned somewhere deep in her head. Note to self: Sex soon. This was probably why she'd been so irritable.

"You mentioned this."

Tenten shook her head. "Not... precisely, but I can see how it might have been misinterpreted. I was talking to her about... well, never mind. You wouldn't be interested."

"No, but Uchiha would be."

Tenten frowned, then blinked, realising that Neji didn't exactly keep his fingertips on the pulse of the gossip-monster and that there must have been some way he'd known. "He told you?"

"He broke down my door."

Which explained Neji's wonderful mood. "So... what am I supposed to do?"

"Fix it."

"Fix – Neji, how the hell am I supposed to do that?"

Neji's eyes narrowed at her. His voice went less deadpan, pissier. "Why don't you see if you can't find some way for him to prove to the general populace of the village that he's not actually having some bizarre, triangular liaison with you to get to _me_?" he said pointedly.

"...he'd be interested in doing something to restore his reputation to "ambiguous" rather than "flaming homosexual"?" Tenten asked. She didn't understand why Sasuke, with his _I-so-don't-care_ attitude, was apparently so eager to restore his representation in the thoughts of people he didn't seem to care about at all. However, if Neji had made this judgement, it was most likely correct. He was very good at analysing people. Besides this, she didn't really care, because it gave her a plan.

Neji blinked. "You have an idea. I'll leave you to it." He turned towards the door.

"Wait!"

He stopped. "What? I certainly don't want to know whatever womanish plan you've concocted." He said dismissively.

Tenten scowled. "Some credit, if you will," she said dryly. "Just... are you going to be around later?"

He cocked his head. "We need to plan our movements for the upcoming mission – or have you forgotten your real job?" he glanced around the flower shop.

Tenten seethed. Her temper moved off at a simmer.

"No, Neji, I haven't forgotten," she persisted. "But I wanted to see you. _Without_ Lee," she said pointedly. He blinked again, offered her the tiniest (sexiest, her mind bubbled) smile and shrugged before he left.

From Neji, this was a resounding declaration of affirmation. She smiled again, breathing in the fresh air from the door he'd left open.

But, still, she'd better get this setting-Sasuke-and-Ino-up thing out of the way before the mission. She did not want to be distracted by the thought of the other people whose love-lives rested in her less-than-capable hands; her own was distracting enough, even though Neji and she were strictly professional on high-ranked missions.

With a sigh, she stripped the apron off and told Ino that she had some important business to attend to. Ino replied that if she was slacking off to have make-up sex, she was going to kill her.

"I wish," Tenten responded dryly. "But, no. Call it a crisis of the sisterhood." She grabbed her bag and clattered out the door like a breathing tornado.

--------------------------------

Casa Uchiha, or Château Uchiha, or... the _Uchiha Mansion_ (possibly haunted, although she didn't really want to think about that) was, of course, big and depressing. It was surrounded by a large, ornate and heavily-warded cast-iron fence bearing those strange little poké-paddles of the clan everywhere. It was atop a large hill that overlooked most of the village, including the long, meandering path of the river, which would probably make for a lovely visage in midsummer. It didn't surprise her to learn that Sasuke kept the blinds drawn.

The foyer – the _genkan_, to be more specific – had weapons on the walls, animals mounted here and there (large predators mostly, but there was a moose, too. A big one, rather scary), yet another bloody Uchiha symbol on a tapestry directly across from the entryway, just in case the others before hadn't tipped you off as to where you were, and the whole place was dark and foreboding, like the bat cave, only worse. It was pretty crude, really, and she wondered if the Uchiha clan hadn't been just a little obsessed with its own importance.

Her first thought was, _poor kid_. Her second thought was, _he hasn't changed it at all?_

Although he didn't seem to appreciate her coming to his home (bad fangirl experiences, she'd wager), and he didn't exactly offer her tea and cookies, he was, at the very least, disinclined to ignore or actively avoid her, which she considered to be positive, particularly since it would be very difficult to get anywhere under these circumstances.

Talking to Sasuke was a little surreal. For one, he seemed to be honestly irked about the rumour, and less at the assumption that he was gay and more at the assumption that he'd sleep with Neji. She wasn't sure whether or not to be offended by this, but settled for being (very) quietly amused.

She could admit easily that she found him aesthetically pleasing, in a pouting, sulky kind of way, like a fashion model with big dark eyes and a sharp stare. He was lithe and gently muscular and he'd probably look great in hotpants, because, admittedly, he had a fantastic arse.

So she could see where Ino was coming from.

But she didn't _like_ him.

She frowned. He must have had _some_ good qualities. She resolved to search for them. Dig deep, Tenten, she told herself.

As a conversationalist, she found that he could even be eloquent when he was talking about something he knew – himself, mostly. She chose to take the submissive route first, given that he would be easier to manipulate if he thought he had one up on her.

She apologised for being the cause of such an inappropriate rumour, but not without pointing out that Sakura had been just as much, if not more, to blame as she. He seemed to allow for this, since he didn't say anything for quite some time.

When he did speak, he fixed his bleak black gaze on her and said, simply, commandingly, "So fix it."

She scowled at him. "How am I supposed to fix damage to _your_ reputation?" she snapped, loosing it momentarily before she reclaimed her cool and lowered her eyes.

He glared at her in a _your-fault-you-fix-it_ kind of way. "Does it look like I care?"

She twitched. The next person that compared Neji to Sasuke was going to get a mouthful of steel. _Sharp_ steel. She eyed Sasuke for a moment.

"Not especially," she said reasonably, "but at the very least I'll need your cooperation," pause "After all, your reputation is determined by your actions." She added, as though it was an afterthought. It wasn't. It was practically a rehearsed speech.

Sasuke eyed her suspiciously and, yes, Naruto had been right, he didn't trust anything enough to take it at face value. Good. His pretty face turned into a considering frown; he didn't like anyone having power over him, not even power this arbitrary. Issues, indeed.

Tenten did her best harmless look, "I was thinking, you could be seen with a girl once or twice, and that would help dispel the idea," she said innocently, anticipating his next question.

"The girl being yourself, I suppose?" he asked snidely. Way to take a compliment, buddy, Tenten thought, but supposed that he had reason enough to be irritable about it. He'd probably had screeching girls banging on his door every Valentine's day for the past three, four years.

"No," Tenten said with a shrug, all the while thinking, _here, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke..._ "I'm a part of the rumour," she pointed out and his scowl became yet darker. "And not Sakura, either, because she's known to be your friend, so it won't look right."

He looked as though he might argue with the term _friend_, but he bore it silently, gritting his teeth. "Alright. I'll... appear in public with some girl or other," he said ill-naturedly, finally.

Tenten couldn't help but make haughty rock-star parallels in her mind, but she was going so well so she just nodded and smiled. "Well, I'll get that all organised for you," she said, hurrying out of his presence, "I feel so bad about causing this –"

"And well you should."

She forced a smile at him. "Don't worry, Sasuke-kun. You won't have to lift a finger outside of getting yourself there and looking sociable, okay?" she bowed a short, not-quite-polite bow and left rather more quickly than was polite.

--------------------------------

Twenty minutes later saw her pacing in front of the tree that held Neji, attached upside down to its lower branch, suspending a kunai between his hands and causing it to spin counter-clockwise. It was a difficult exercise, and it required immense concentration and chakra control, with the results of failure being fairly self-evident. It was a very delicate, careful exercise, and pretty much anything could disrupt it.

"That ignorant, _condescending_, _SELFISH, **IMMATURE** _ LITTLE _**BASTARD**!_" she roared, slamming a fist into a tree-trunk, expelling chakra in a huge, totally unrefined wave and watching it splinter from the inside around her. She was careful enough to ensure that it wasn't Neji's tree-trunk, but beyond that, she couldn't be bothered looking to his concentration.

Neji didn't seem too perturbed, even though flying into shrieking rages didn't really come under the "Tenten" subheading of their team. It was more his thing. She, he surmised, was unlikely to become personally dangerous to him with it. "You brought it upon yourself," he said neutrally.

She twitched. Seriously, one of these days she was going to have a fucking aneurism from the stress of her life. Somehow, it was not the whole ninja-in-the-dark bit that was forever causing her this stress, but rather her social life. It was little wonder that all of the jounin were either weirdass eccentrics like Gai-sensei, incurably drunk livewires, like Anko, or mistrustful and introverted oddballs like Genma or Kakashi.

"I most certainly _did not_," she snapped at him. "_Sakura_, the gossiping little bitch, brought it upon me, and she's going to get a _piece of my mind_ the next time I –"

"Tell me how the lobotomy goes then," Neji interrupted her ranting sharply, "and unless it gets rid of that self-righteous indignation, don't come back." It was a barb; sardonic, meant to needle her into shutting her mouth for a few moments while her brain tried to come up with a response. It worked rather well.

"Now that I have your undivided attention, were you coming with me to go over those plans with Lee, or were you just going to sit here and fume over your misfortunes?"

She loved him, true, and his ability to cut to the core of the matter was one of his better qualities, but he truly sucked at comforting people, and, frankly, there were some days when she'd just rather _not _be head over heels for Hyuuga Neji, thank you very much.

Brazenly, she said, "Misfortunes? Have you ever read _The Misfortunes of Virtue_, Neji?" she asked innocently.

"Yes."

Lock, stock and barrel, he'd won that round.

--------------------------------

Good morning. I should currently be studying, but instead I chose to spend another two or so hours writing this. It's fun, I suppose, and now that I've decided what I'm going to be **doing** with it, I can add _pairings_ to the summary! Joy, O joy.

One should note that _The Misfortunes of Virtue_ is a book by the Marquis de Sade. It's an... interesting... read.

Reviewers have a special place in my heart.


	3. III Mission Subjective

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Thank you.

**Chapter Three: The Mission Subjective**

---------

"Alright, Ino, I've got you your date. The rest is up to you," Tenten said breezily, crashing through the doors to the flower shop.

She'd just spoken to Sasuke and, finally, after much bitching and moaning and negotiating (she could now no longer call him stupid, having lost to him on that front) gotten the prissy little idiot to agree, made bookings at a good (read as: expensive) restaurant and paid two-hundred for the tab in advance as per their deal, hoping that they wouldn't be able to rack up much more of a bill than that.

Now all she had to do was inform Ino, take care of the shop while she panicked, lock up, and pack for work. Even Lee had noticed that she'd been distracted, and so she resolved to keep her mind off Ino and on killing off the assassins until after the wedding.

She was a ninja, after all.

"You WHAT?" Ino shrieked, dropping a potplant. Dirt scattered. "How the _hell_ did you manage that?" she asked incredulously.

"Opportunism, mostly." She said vaguely. "It's not much of a date, but it's the best I can do on such short notice. It will, of course, be scheduled for Valentine's day."

"Oh, gods. I'm not ready for this," Ino said shakily, picking up the pot plant and setting it absently atop the cash register.

"Sure you are," Tenten said kindly, thinking that Sasuke was a dickhead and didn't really deserve to have Ino getting squishy over him, but that Ino had thought the exact same thing about her and Neji, so she'd better just keep her mouth shut. She frowned.

"You've obviously been speaking to him lately –"

"So have you," Tenten said, not really wishing to get into the advice-giving part of the operation. She'd been hoping she could skip that part, since Ino was so, so much better at it anyway.

"Oh, please, I've been talking at him, not to him," Ino said snappishly.

Because he'd never actually respond, Tenten thought moodily. Poor girl. She was just setting herself up for utter failure. Well, no, Tenten was setting her up for utter failure.

But she needed to get through it sometime. Right?

Right.

But Tenten knew all about nosey people who thought they knew what was best for others. Didn't she?

That was different, though.

She smiled and responded with, "Right. Well... be yourself. I get the feeling that he's, uh," suspicious and paranoid about people who are too nice to him, "a little jaded when it comes to simpering girls."

"Right, of course. I'm cool, I'm calm, and I'm a totally brilliant conversationalist, right? I can absolutely win him over with my sparkling wit."

"Um, sure." Pause. "Look, I've gotta prepare for a mission tonight – I'll hopefully get a chance to use that new kodachi –" her eyes sparkled with _True Love_ for a moment, " – so I'll have to leave a little early, if that's alrigh -"

Ino rubbed her forehead. "I'm, uh, gonna go talk to Sakura," she said, tossing off her apron and rushing out the door.

Tenten shrugged, hung the apron on its little hook, made sure to leave the details of the date in Ino's chick-shaped, piyo-piyo notepad with many an encouraging comment and continued to do the best she could in the shop.

When Inoshi, rehabilitating from a shoulder injury and doped on painkillers, wandered in, looked at her oddly and said, "You're not my daughter," through a medicated haze, Tenten just smiled and shrugged wordlessly again. He nodded as though they had a great understanding of one another and wandered off again. Painkillers, Tenten thought in amused exasperation, they did funny things to people.

When it was time to close – perhaps a bit early, true, but she'd had far too many customers and she smelt like a freshly dug garden and she still had to get ready for leaving that night – she happily locked up and went home to bathe. She avoided her mother by picking up her own early dinner on the way – it wasn't like she could cook any better than the she-devil – and climbing into her room.

The water felt good on her freshly-scrubbed skin and she relaxed back into it, sighing gratefully. A moment later, she stretched and got out because they had to leave and she definitely could not afford to be late, not when there'd been so many comments about her distractions.

---------

They were to meet their client in a hotel in Maple City, a city not far removed from the Hidden Leaf. They made it there just after sunset.

The city, Tenten thought, was interesting. She hadn't had much opportunity to explore the alternate reality that civilians lived their lives in, since the occasion to visit it was usually short and violent. For her, the civilians, their cities and their lives were distractions intruding on her world. In the dusk the cityscape was leached of all colour, transforming it into something bleak and dark and unfamiliar to her eyes.

Lee, however, seemed to be enthralled. Where she saw drably-dressed, desperate people shoving useless junk under her nose and shrilly shrieking its worth, Lee saw a bright, fast-moving crowd of people with stories to tell and lives to live.

Glancing at Neji, Tenten saw that he was not nearly so pleased at their surroundings as his more enthusiastic team mate. He had a harsh, haughty expression, and the people that bumped and jostled herself and Lee took one glance at his exotic eyes and Konoha forehead-protector and skirted around him. She snorted. Some things didn't really change, no matter where you were.

They checked into the hotel that they had been instructed to meet their client in. Neji sniffed at the garish opulence of the marble-and-gold coated lobby, snubbing the red-leather lounges and thick, plush carpet.

"Um, can I take your luggage?"

Tenten glanced back over her shoulder, frowning at the bellhop. Fifteen or so, she guessed – slightly taller than Neji, with darker skin and paler hair, less sharp angles and contrasts. He was cute, in a boy-next-door kind of way. Not her speed.

But he was either actively hitting on her, in which case she'd have to feed him to Neji, or he was just plain stupid, in which case she wasn't interested anyway. She held up her hands, pointedly showing him their emptiness.

He frowned, then gestured, stopping just short of touching her pack when she shied away. The abrupt movement caught Lee's attention, and probably Neji's, too, but he was busy arguing with the terrified receptionist. The boy with the eyebrows, coming to the realisation that it might be better if their team mate didn't get involved in what was currently only a minor misunderstanding with the bellboy but could probably be made to degenerate into mass-murder, hurried over, clapping a friendly hand on Tenten's shoulder.

"Are you okay, Tenten?" he asked cheerfully, offering the bellhop a bright (blinding) smile. The young man reeled, blinking.

"I just want to take her luggage..." he trailed off, staring at Lee's getup. His eyes trailed up until they fixed on his eyebrows.

"And I was just saying how I'd really appreciate it if nobody took my belongings off me," Tenten deadpanned. "Is that _okay_ with everyone? Am I allowed to carry my own things, or are they going to be confiscated?" she snapped.

The boy took a step back. Even Lee gave her an odd look.

Tenten breathed deeply. It would be very hard to explain to Lee why exactly this mission hit too close to home, particularly since Ishin's death was still being treated as a slightly suspicious freak accident. Maybe she could talk to Neji about it.

Fat chance.

Lee grinned maniacally, petting Tenten's shoulder enthusiastically but kind of mechanically, obviously trying to think of a way to write off her rudeness.

"Is there a problem?" Neji's voice carried quite well, and his open hostility filtered into the tone. Tenten's face met her palm.

"No, Neji," she said soothingly, trying not to sound patronizing, since that was the _last _thing she needed for Neji to identify in her voice, "There's no problem. We're just going to go on up to our room now, okay?"

Neji, glancing between Tenten, Lee and the retreating bellhop, let his eyes linger for a long moment before turning abruptly and leading the way.

The poor by was left, looking shell-shocked and not a little frightened, in the foyer, staring after her and thinking, _I was just doing my job_...

They entered the soft hush of the air-conditioner in the cool, marble lift where they let Lee press the button for floor seven. Tenten wondered what the mirrors were for. The hallway was deserted. There were gold-edged mirrors placed at regular intervals along the way, along with framed prints of what she assumed were famous paintings. Room769 seemed way too long a way down that hallway.

Eventually, however, they did reach it and even managed to get the hotel lock to work – on only the third time, too, since they were talented genius ninjas.

"Oh, good," Tenten murmured, "I thought maybe the rooms would look like the lobby," she said.

They, at least, were destined to reside in a room made of plush black carpeting and white walls. Luxurious suede lounges in black and white revolved like yin and yang around a flat glass coffee table off to one corner, and a kitchenette was tucked away in the other. There were two beds – double or queen, Tenten couldn't really tell and didn't really care. One had white covers and sheets, the other black.

On the wall that the beds faced, in that strange little pause between the kitchenette and what she'd tentatively called the "lounge", was a painting. It was framed in black, but the picture was of a bright, bright pink tulip with green, green leaves just after rain. It shocked the eye into paying attention.

"Weird décor, though," she muttered.

Neji grunted in agreement. She looked over at him. He was eyeing the beds as though they were poisonous and glancing longingly at the couches. Tenten fought back an unladylike laugh. Of course – _someone_ would have to double up, and Lee would probably have a fit if it were her and Neji, since he didn't really have much faith in Neji's virtuousness (which was kind of unfair, but kind of truthful) and nobody had told him about "them" yet.

"Hmm..." she said softly. "I wonder if this guy is staying in here as well?" she asked blankly.

Lee cocked his head. "That would make sleeping arrangements difficult, wouldn't it?" he said, somehow still sounding bright and cheery.

"Potentially," she agreed, glancing at the clock. "Huh. Ten minutes. Might as well settle down." She pulled her pack off her shoulder – it was noticeably more packed than either of her team mates, and, as much as she hated to be thought of as the kind of girl who took five outfits to stay one night, it couldn't be helped – and tossed it over into the corner of the white couch. "I'm done," she said brightly. Lee chuckled.

Neji rolled his eyes and slid flopped onto the black couch, somehow managing to make flopping graceful. He tipped his head back and closed his eyes. Tenten sighed. That looked about the right speed, considering the trip here. Even Neji had broken a sweat in this insane heatwave.

The door opened.

Lee spun around, steady in a taijutsu stance; Tenten jumped back, moulding chakra and bringing a weapon to hand; Neji flicked one large pale eye open.

"Eh? They're just _kids_," the man outside the door said. Tenten recognized him from the photos. Trusting that Lee would keep his eyes on them, she glanced back at Neji, who nodded.

"Lee, it's not genjutsu," she said softly. Lee relaxed back. Neji's other eye opened. He regarded their client lazily.

"I am assured that they are some of the finest ninjas that Konoha has to offer, Ishida-sama," the man beside the blonde panicked.

Ishida snorted and raised one dubious eyebrow. "I hadn't even made my first million at that age," he said, catching Lee's chin betwixt his fingers and scrutinizing his face. Lee blinked.

"Um, we _are_ ninja from Konoha, though," Lee said blankly. "We have trained for many, many years under Maito Gai, the best teacher to ever walk the –"

"What he _means_," Tenten cut him off softly, warningly, "is that it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Ishida gave her a long, lingering once-over and let go of Lee's chin. "And one of them's a woman," he added to his servant. "I'm dead already. Bring my luggage up."

"Yes, yes you are," Tenten growled under her breath.

"Well, I shall be sleeping in the next room," Ishida said haughtily, going through the adjoining door in their room.

"Oh, good," Lee said. "At least there'll be no problems with the sleeping arrangements, then. It's a good thing that our client had the amazing foresight to –"

"Shut up." Tenten snarled, slapping him over the head. "I don't care if he dies. He deserves it."

Neji raised an eyebrow. That took care of the discussion as to who was best equipped to look after him on the first night. "Lee, you keep an eye on him for tonight," he said.

Lee looked ready to protest, but glanced at Tenten's glower and seemed to decide that it was best to be out of the line of fire. Let Neji deal with that particular can of worms.

Not that he'd ever compare the sparkling beauty, wit and fair company of his team mate with a can of worms. That would be most discourteous.

"Er... right!" he said, scooping up his things and skipping over to the door between their rooms.

As it clicked closed, Neji gave Tenten a curious kind of look. "Are you going to set the traps at the windows and doors?" he asked.

Tenten glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest with a huff. "...I'll do this room."

He shrugged and stood before following Lee's path into the next room to lay those traps and suchlike, since they often involved chakra manipulation, which Lee was not _exactly_ adept at.

The business of laying traps was sort of calming for its monotony. It required focus, arithmetic, foresight and planning; all things that were calculated and objective. Sometimes Tenten thought that her life would be easier if there were no humans involved. Ever.

She'd be a whole lot poorer, too, but that wasn't the point.

Neji double-checked her traps. It used to piss her off until she'd seen him double-checking Gai-sensei's traps, too. Then she just thought he was paranoid, which wasn't far from the truth.

The night was relaxed, at least for her. They ended up laying on the black bed, the one farthest from the door with Neji on the window side (considerate or egotistical of him, she couldn't be sure) with the mission information laid out before them as they waved pens around and argued strategy.

Well, okay, she offered suggestions and he ripped them apart, which was really rather useful once she had gotten over the vague personal degradation involved. Neji never really spoke all that much unless he was ranting, and he was doing less and less of that lately, so it was almost nice to hear him arguing.

"Okay, okay. Geez. Well, how about we check _her_ out first? She's the source of the problem, right?" she almost winced saying it. She hated feeling empathy for the people she had to kill, hurt or endanger. Sometimes she wondered what it was like to be Neji; so damn unconscionable that empathy didn't even rate a mention.

Neji's face remained blank. "That could work. It may not afford us any useful information, though."

"Yeah, but it could."

"If you want."

"Yay. Finally," Tenten said with a small smile. She shook her head, yawning. "What time is it?"

"Eleven," Neji responded with a glance at the moon. "We've only been arguing for three hours. Is that all you've got?"

Once, Tenten might have kept going out of pride. Now, all she wanted to do was curl up and go to sleep atop the covers. Neji responded rather stiffly when she curled into him affectionately, but she considered any kind of response to be progress.

--------------------------------

"There." Lee landed on the branch one over from her. It barely moved; simple physics in theory, hard training and terrifying trial and error in practise.

"I can see, Lee," Neji muttered coldly. Tenten wished the two of them would stop bickering for just one second. Unfortunately, Lee rarely seemed to think when he opened his mouth, and Neji was more than happy to retaliate to any unintended slight with real spite.

Sometimes she hated being the sane one. If she was the sane one. "So?" she asked Neji quietly.

They'd left Ishida behind in the hotel room with the promise that he wouldn't leave it. He'd scoffed and sniffed and told them that his technology was such that he didn't need to, and then gotten rather offended when Tenten had snapped, _good for you_, into his face dismissively.

Neji had given her the _stop-being-so-goddamn-unprofessional_ look and she'd had to grudgingly agree and shut her mouth. She needed to stop being so sensitive, and remember that Ishida wasn't Ishin (he was much more of an asshole, actually, which just made her that much more uncomfortable) and that this Mizuko wasn't _her._ They were unrelated, coincidental events and the only reason she got stuck doing this assignment was because Tsunade evidently thought it would make her think about it.

She didn't _want_ to think about it.

She shook this from her thoughts, instead returning her attention to Neji, who she was still anticipating an answer from.

His eyes didn't move at all, but practise told her he was focusing on her for that split second before he answered rather sarcastically, "Do you really think I can tell in one look?"

"Sometimes," Tenten responded easily, knowing that it would annoy him. Neji made a vaguely irritated sound before taking off again, slipping through the branches like he belonged there.

He didn't, she knew, because she'd finally gotten around to knocking him out of them earlier that week. He was too prideful to admit to being proud of her, but she had her suspicions.

"It's her," he confirmed a moment later.

"She mustn't be expecting any retaliation if she's going for walks in the forest," Tenten said.

Neji grunted. Lee caught up, having carefully checked and hidden any signs of their passing.

"Is that –?"

"Yes."

"Is she –?"

"No, nothing suspicious. There is no guile in her body language, either. She believes that she is alone." Neji said.

Lee sighed. "Well, there goes that idea."

"Not necessarily." Tenten said. "We have to return back quickly, but Neji can keep tailing her. Right?"

Neji cocked an eye at her. "I can," he agreed, sounding a little reluctant.

"So Neji can follow her and see if we can get a heads up on any of the assassins heading our way, and we'll head back to the hotel, pack Ishida-san up and get on the move to the next town on his list."

"Excellent, Tenten! Capital! With your incredible planning skills we'll have the advantage in no time! Ah, the quick-wittedness of _youth_!" He struck a pose.

"No advantage if you give our position away," Neji said dryly, silencing Lee's exuberance almost immediately. Tenten sighed in exasperation at their antics, and he shot her a look, too. She rolled her eyes, but nodded, allowing their glorious leader some thought-space.

He paused, evaluating. "It's a sound idea," he agreed and slipped on ahead after the woman with neither a word nor a look behind him.

Tenten sighed and took off in the other direction. Lee fell into step beside her in silence. After a few moments of zinging through the trees, she dropped to the floor of the forest and ran there instead. They were far enough away from Neji and Mizuko now.

Lee fell into step beside her again, and she could feel his eyes on her features, but couldn't help the expression she knew was on her face. Fierce, no-nonsense.

Closer to unholy fury, really, she would admit later.

"Tenten, slow down," he said. It was not flowery, and it was a very serious tone. Tenten obeyed.

"What is it?" she asked, although she got the feeling that she already knew.

"I realise that Neji has already noticed this, and he's probably already spoken to you about it," he prefaced, then sighed, giving her the earnest, serious look. Half right, she thought, affecting a bored expression as best she could. She didn't want to hear this. Not from Lee, not now.

"But I feel that something must be said about your attitude towards this mission, Tenten. I don't know why, but you have been acting very strangely about it."

There was a long pause, during which he evidently expected her to turn to him with watery eyes and tell him everything. Maybe she would have, a year or so ago, but life moved on, and she was prouder than that.

The thought flitted through her head briefly – was _Sakura-chan_ so sweet and feminine that she'd pour her heart out at the smallest invitation? Muscles tightened in her jaw. She stopped abruptly and turned fierce, defensive eyes on her team mate.

"And?" she demanded, standing stock still, shaking with repressed anger.

Lee stood his ground. It was one of the things you could always rely on Lee to do; stand firm for his friends, no matter how fucked up or wrong they were this week, and stand firm for his opinions and beliefs, no matter how they were ridiculed.

"Tenten, if you continue expressing yourself as you have been, it will have a negative effect on the mission objective." He said firmly.

She swallowed. "How the hell would you know?" she hissed, realised he had no idea what she was talking about and shook her head angrily, slamming a fist into one of the trees. It made an ominous creaking sound, but stood firm. She glared at it moodily. "Forget it. I'm doing the best I can, alright?" she said, breathing deeply.

She was getting sick of pretending to be okay with these things. Furthermore, she was getting sick of pretending to care what anybody else wanted or felt or thought.

"Tenten..." Lee sounded concerned at the amount of raw emotion in her voice. "Is there something that you want to share with me?" he asked carefully, sensitively.

"No." She said.

He leaned in closer, peering at her face. "Are you –"

"_Yes_, I'm fucking sure. Let's go. We're burning time."

Lee nodded. "Of course. But, Tenten, if there's something you need to talk about, I'm here."

That hurt more than it comforted. He was always so open; how could he say something like that without even the vaguest feeling of vulnerability? He was Lee, that was how. She nodded.

--------------------------------

She was bathed and combed and Sakura was sitting on her bed, rolling her eyes periodically and sighing loudly, evidently reflecting on the other things she could be doing right then.

"I could be training," she said pointedly. Training, it seemed, had become her new hobby since she'd started dating Lee. Ino briefly reflected that she might have been one of the weaker kunoichi from their graduating class once, but Tsunade's training coupled with Lee's sudden influence had made her into something else entirely.

"Or watching Sasuke and Naruto train – which they're assuredly doing, because he's sure as hell not going to spend all this time preparing to take_ you_ out, you know."

Ino shrugged, searching through her closet for her pants– the ones she wore when she was particularly skinny; they made her legs look hot. She'd tried the jeans on earlier, but maybe they were a little too dressed down, and the dress was way too _Pollyanna_.

Sakura sighed. "Why are you going to so much trouble?" she asked again. "He's not going to care. He's not even going to _notice_. Trust me." Ino suspected that there was a story behind that particular roll of the eyes, and once again, she was irritated that Sakura had gotten to know Sasuke so well over the years.

She sighed herself this time, and flopped onto the bed next to her still undressed, careful of her hair.

Time to swallow her pride and do something logical. "Alright. What do you think I should do?"

Sakura shrugged, picking at the bedcovers. "Sasuke's difficult. The problem is, he doesn't like most people, and he doesn't trust the ones he likes. The only advice I can give you is to be relaxed, pay attention when he talks, and don't feel that the long silences are awkward."

Ino glanced sideways at her. "I was talking about the clothes."

"Oh." Pause. "The place you're going's pretty casual, and it's better to look hot and underdressed than to look hot and overdressed."

"Dumb it down a little."

"The jeans."

"Right. Jeans."

Sakura twirled her hair around her finger and yawned. She wondered what Lee was doing, and if his teammates had tried to kill him for being too chipper yet.

--------------------------------

Tenten twirled the kunai around between her fingers absently. She lay on the bed across the room with one leg crossed over the other, staring at the door and twirling, twirling, twirling.

It was one am.

The moonlight streamed through the window. Only an amateur would try to come in where such a shadow would be thrown – an amateur, or somebody very, very good.

But if the assassin was that good, she was dead already anyway, so she didn't let it bother her.

It was interesting, she thought, how she could be lying here, waiting for someone who would come to kill her and her client, yet she didn't feel at all nervous. It was just... business as usual. Well, not exactly as usual. They didn't often get jobs precisely like this one – Tsunade didn't like sending either Lee or Naruto on cold-blooded kills.

Event the beloved Hokage was not immune to favouritism. She stretched, lazy, catlike.

The shape in the bed across from her moved. She sighed. It had been good to pretend that she was alone. She scowled at him.

"Are you still awake?" he asked in a voice that didn't sound very sleepy.

"And why shouldn't I be?" she responded. "It's my job."

"It's no job for a woman," he responded almost automatically. Her temper flared. What was _with_ these arrogant civilians and their casual sexism?

She opened her mouth to tell him to get fucked, but closed it again with a click. She had patience. She really shouldn't insult the customers. "It's the job I chose."

He snorted derisively. "So, anyone coming to kill me yet?" he asked almost cheerfully.

"Not yet, but there's still time." She responded sweetly. "Why don't you go back to sleep?" she suggested. "You have an early start tomorrow."

"And what about you?"

"Me? I'm used to it. I'll get to sleep tomorrow night."

There was more shuffling from over the other side of the room. She watched coolly as Ishida rolled out of bed and walked across the creaky wooden floor to her bedside, sitting on it.

She did not move over for him.

"But what about tonight?" he asked with a lop-sided grin. It would have been cute if he was less of an asshole.

"Tonight, I watch. Your shadow's blocking the light, you know. Someone could be coming through that window right now." She didn't sound too concerned, and she supposed that was her fault.

He laughed and leaned down over her, planting one hand on her shoulder and leering closer to her face.

She didn't move, or even really change her expression. "You're engaged, Ishida-san," she said coldly. "I don't think now is the appropriate time to be indiscrete," she added pointedly when he didn't move.

He leaned in further, shifting his hand downwards, and somehow managed to cop a grope – shove, _squeeze_, and that was going to _bruise_, rough bastard – before she had the kunai she'd been playing with at his throat. She was livid, and growled, "I can kill you for that."

He raised an eyebrow and pressed against the knife. It was a tactical loss, but she relaxed it back a little. "But your country needs the money from me so badly, little girl."

Her eyes narrowed, and she exerted pressure again, leaving a small nick in his skin and delighting in the uncertainty that crossed his eyes when the move made the moonlight strike her expression. She knew the look on her face; she'd seen it reflected in glassy, sightless eyes more than once.

She couldn't say that she disliked it.

"I am worth far more to my country than your filthy money could ever be," she said with absolute conviction.

Drawing his wounded pride around him like a fine cloak, Ishida rocked back on his heels, stood and stalked back to his own bed.

The first attempt came shortly after, and Tenten _really_ didn't feel like protecting her client.

But she wasn't so low as to violate her contract just because her contractor had tried to violate _her_, no matter how much she wanted to.

He was like all assassins tended to become after a while; nondescript and blank-faced. He couldn't have been more than fourteen, but she'd seen younger people who could have lived off hits alone, and she didn't let it faze her.

He wasn't bad, really, but her aim was better in the dark. He went for Ishida first, and she moved in front of him, slamming herself into his shoulder and immobilizing one arm.

The other moved to hit her with a long sword – an uchigatana, her mind supplied, shocked at the inappropriateness of such a long-range weapon for a solitary...

She whirled, dodging the swipe and drawing her kodachi, hurling a few well-aimed kunai towards the second intruder with perfect, fatal accuracy and knowing by the dull, wet thud that she'd either hit her mark, or hit Ishida – _win-win situation, really_ – and slashed into the first boy's shoulder, putting her back into it and shearing through most of his torso with the sharp steel.

The blood that sprayed in a harsh, powerful spurt caught her in the eye, and she cursed, but blinked it out – she couldn't afford to take a hand off her weapons before she was sure that they were dead.

She let him fall to the floor, cut off his head to make sure he was really dead and turned to the other one.

She checked his pulse, checked his chakra and decided that he was probably dead, too. There were a number of techniques, however, that could feign death until it was safe to seek medical attention, and they didn't get paid until they were really dead.

She could leave Ishida, blood-spattered and shaking, with the might-not-be-dead corpse and wake Neji up to check, or... well, nobody she'd ever hear of could survive decapitation.

She went with option two.

Then she kicked the head away from the corpse, cleaned her kodachi off on his shirt, finally wiped the blood out of her eye and, ignoring the possibly-traumatized Ishida, went back to bed. She'd bathe in the morning.

--------------------------------

I finished my exams, except for the GAT, which cannot be worried about or studied for, and so I bring you more Balaning the Equation. I'll try to get Tenten somewhere back in character soon, but this isn't a pleasant time for her, and she _has _been spending an awful lot of time around Neji lately.

**_Comments appreciated, as always_**, and this probably needs edits, because it's been written in about two and a half hours, and I'm exhausted.


	4. IV Harmony and Discord

**Chapter Four: Discord and Harmony**

See first chapter for disclaimer.

This is a relatively short chapter – I think it's only three-thousand or so words if you exclude the notes, which is a far cry from the five-thousand limit I'd intended for this story. It may also need some revisions, but I wanted to update.

Beware some arguable OOC – see mammoth author's note at the bottom of this instalment for details as to motivations and explanations if required.

- Yasi

------------

"So, a _date_!" Naruto crowed, delighted at the chance to irritate his training partner unmercifully. "Wow. A _date_. How are you gonna manage that?" he asked, pausing before he added, "You might actually need to _talk _on a date, you know."

Sasuke made a shrugging motion, blocking the kick to the head easily and swinging around, liquid, to take Naruto's feet out from under him.

Except that Naruto wasn't there. He'd been improving his skills again. That was alright, though; so had Sasuke.

"So, who's the, uh, _lucky,_ girl?" he bantered from above, smirking. "_And_ you'll have to be polite," he added as though it had just occurred to him. "She'll ditch you and publicly humiliate you if you aren't at least civil, you know," Naruto said, nodding sagely as though he had experience. Idiot – he probably had.

Sasuke stopped moving, glaring up at the blonde who'd somehow managed to settle himself on his shoulders without losing balance. The slightest attempt to check told him that the idiot was using chakra to do it – he and Naruto had very different chakra signatures up close.

"Get off me, idiot."

His glare was somewhat diffused by the sunlight that was silhouetting his team mate, and he blamed this for Naruto's unimpressed expression. "Come on, Sasuke-bastard. Tell me about it!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed further in the warning look that usually preceded an awakening of Orochimaru's curse seal and some blind, unholy rage. Since Naruto was the one who'd usually have to deal with that anyway, he shrugged it off and slipped off his shoulders to the ground behind him.

Sasuke got a face-full of direct sunlight for Naruto's compliance with his demand. He didn't flinch, didn't comment, simply turned his eyes back to Naruto, even though the sharingan had been awakened at the outset (since Sasuke liked to prove that he was still better in a fair fight with Naruto – that was, of course, a fair fight involving only the use of their god-given talents and absolutely excluding any involvement from creepy outside entities, be it Orochimaru or that freaky fox-bitch) and the sunlight had hurt.

"So?" Naruto asked, flopping to the ground. There hadn't been much rain, Sasuke noted arbitrarily, watching Naruto pull tufts of grass out and sprinkle the lost, haggard pieces of ex-grass across the bare patches.

Reluctantly, but knowing by now that he wasn't going to get anything remotely resembling a worthwhile fight from Naruto unless he either told him whatever the idiot wanted to know or somehow diverted him, Sasuke settled fluidly to the ground next to him, curling his legs up under him.

"Well?" Naruto demanded, rocking back and forth on his toes.

Sasuke wondered briefly why it seemed that Naruto could bounce in – in – in a ramen-induced sugar-high – which was kind of odd, since there wasn't really that much sugar in ramen – whilst sitting relatively still. "Well, what?" he asked grouchily.

Naruto's clear blue eyes narrowed knowingly, and he tapped one side of his chin with a fingertip. "Are you shy, Sasuke? Whassamatter?" he asked, making it sound like one long, partially-coherent word. He pretended to think for a moment. "Are you scared that she might steal your precious virginity?"

Sasuke sweatdropped and gave him a long, incredulous look, which gradually faded into something like, _um, **no**, dumbfuck_. "I spent more than a year off with Orochimaru, and you think I'm still a virgin?"

"BASTARD! That was _**way** _toomuch information!" Naruto screeched, keeling over and trying to claw out his eyes. He proceeded with admirable enthusiasm, if little actual success. "Ew, ew, ew, **_ew_**. I'm gonna be scarred for _life_ now, asshole!" he went on for some time about how Sasuke would have to pay for his medical bills and pain and anguish and suchlike.

Sasuke had heard similar diatribes before, and, when he judged that Naruto was sufficiently involved in it not to notice, he got up and left to see if there wasn't someone else who would spar with him for a few hours around. He congratulated himself on a job well done, reflecting that, even if the half-dead grass wasn't impressed with Naruto's oratory prowess, the noisy idiot was impressed enough for both of them.

--------------------------------

"It was reckless. You should have called for someone. Why do you have such difficulty with the simple act of _following procedure_?"

It was finally sunup, and Neji was pissed off with her. It was sweet to know that his anger probably stemmed from worry, which was a roundabout way of saying he cared, but in practise it was irritating.

Lee was also rather upset with her – and so very eloquently, too – and so she had anger and irritation from two fronts, with a fast-recovering Ishida to smirk at her from his seat at the table. What kind of employer paid so much goddamned attention to the hired help, anyway, she wondered, glaring at him.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Neji snapped, tapping her jaw with two fingers as though he were admonishing a disobedient puppy.

Tenten jerked her attention back to him with a guilty twinge. He didn't like being ignored, and she didn't really want him angry with her – all heaven and hell knew how long Neji could hold on to his anger. He breathed a deep, calming breath and kept his voice low for the sake of appearances – couldn't have Ishida hear them being unprofessional, although the chances that there was any professionalism left to preserve – particularly after threatening to kill him the previous night – were very slim.

He looked like he was about to deliver another blistering harangue about her complete lack of professionalism and responsibility, but then he shook his head and gestured sharply with one hand, waving the issue off. "You killed them."

"Decapitated. They're not going anywhere," Tenten said, glad that he'd let it drop. It was funny how he had somehow managed to yell while speaking softly.

He nodded. "Good. Show me their heads – I want to check something."

Tenten nodded and led them up the unsteady, wooden stairs and back to their rooms, digging through a sack of some rough, cheap material to lift one of the heads out by its hair. Its spine dangled pale and sharp a little below where the neck ended.

Neji took one look and nodded. "That'll do," he said, gesturing for her to put it back in the bag.

"You don't want to see the other one?" she asked as she complied.

"That will do," he repeated. Tenten fought off a sigh. He was still angry with her.

Tenten followed Neji meekly back down the narrow hall and the wooden stairs, coming into the common room where Lee was babbling pleasantly to Ishida as they breakfasted.

Neji gestured Lee over. They were still in view of Ishida, who was very pointedly reading his newspaper and drinking his black coffee. He seemed disinclined to mess with Neji, and, not for the first time, Tenten wished she had his intimidating mien. Despite the events of the previous night, he still looked crisp and edible in his hand-tailored suit, which was just infuriating.

Lee bounded over, having just finished the energy and nutrient-filled breakfast that Gai had designed for him. While it did seem to make him even more efficient and alert, Tenten suspected that this had more to do with the placebo effect than the actual affect of the breakfast.

"The woman is definitely sending the assassins. One of the men Tenten killed, at least, took money from her yesterday morning," he informed them. "We can tag her and kill them as soon as they have the contracts. They won't be expecting it, since it will leave Ishida-san more vulnerable." He said it like a command, but the slightest lilt in his tone let them know it was just a suggestion – a good one, too.

"We'd need to leave one of us with him to make sure that nobody got through," Tenten pointed out quickly. She didn't like Ishida, but they wouldn't get paid at all if they didn't protect him until after the wedding. Neji nodded and Lee complimented her on her fantastic grasp of the situation. Say what you wanted about overzealous fools, but Lee was easy on the ego. Easier than some, anyway.

Neji's eyes narrowed. "The person left behind would have to be almost entirely self-sufficient," he said.

"That would point to you," Tenten said, happy that she could manage to be complementary and honest at the same time. He gave her a flat sort of look, one that said he knew she was just being sweet to get on his good side again and that he wouldn't be entirely happy with her until she pretended that she was a professional for a while.

"Yes, it would," he agreed baldly, "but I don't trust you two off together making split-second, stupid decisions in such an important business." He raised an eyebrow to see if either of them would argue.

Lee opened his mouth, but then thought and gave a sheepish shrug. Tenten didn't even bother. She knew a disaster when Neji diverted one – he'd be indecisive and uncontrollable, and she'd strangle him within an hour if she had to put up with his endless talking for just that long. It wasn't that they didn't love each other – it was simply that they needed something else to balance them out.

"Theoretically, it would be better to leave Tenten," Lee said, glancing at her with worried eyes.

"Right," Neji agreed, "but in practise, she'll kill him within the day."

"I –" Tenten opened her mouth to snap something in her defence, but Lee turned to her.

"Do you _want_ to stay here, Tenten?" he asked in surprise. She opened her mouth again, but Lee said, "With Ishida-san?"

Neji's posture shifted slightly. Tenten froze, recognising that body language from experience, even if he could keep the sudden surge of jealousy from his expression. She slowed down the angry words that were about to come to her tongue. _Lee, you manipulative little **shit**_, she thought. "I don't _want_ to stay here – and certainly not with _him_ – but since I'm the best choice, given that _I_ can actually use chakra, I'd like to point out that I'm not emotionally unable to complete the task!" she snapped, adding, "_Without_ interruption, if you don't mind."

Lee recoiled and blinked at her. "Alright," he agreed in confusion, and Tenten cursed her quick tongue, because he hadn't been being manipulative or mean, just curious, and, damnit, why couldn't she just shut her mouth and trust him – it was _Lee_, for fuck's sake.

"I just thought you mightn't have wanted to stay, since you seem to have some problem with Ishida-san," he pointed out. "But your enthusiasm does you credit," he added brightly, "As does your willingness to overlook your personal preferences in the name of your mission!" he tacked on, raising one solemn fist to the skies with tears glistening in his eyes.

His partners ignored him, turning to one another. Tenten took a deep calming breath, ignoring Neji's raised eyebrow. "I..." she said, "am merely saying that I am _able_ to take on the task you have suggested," she clarified for him, barely keeping her sarcastic, _O great and glorious leader_, to herself.

"Thank you for your input," Neji said blandly, although there was an underlying thread of mocking laughter.

She sighed. Whatever. Her insistence was stupid anyway, because she really didn't want to stay here with Ishida – especially not when she could be spending that time alone with Neji, hunting down professional assassins for fun and profit. Danger made fine spice for a tryst, or so they told her.

"Okay. You know what? Lee can do it."

Neji nodded. "I'm glad you agree," he said dryly. "Lee," he addressed the other ninja. "Stay here. Tenten and I will tag the fiancé."

Lee broke off his rant, blinking and nodding. "That was a fast-made decision, Neji," he commented.

"Shut up," Neji responded automatically. Lee didn't really respond, so far used to it that it ceased to have meaning.

Tenten had a headache, but she took a deep breath and told herself to bear it until she got Neji alone enough to jump him – for the headache-curing endorphins, of course.

--------------------------------

Ino looked around the restaurant, blinking at the decidedly kafkaesque décor. The tables were strange contraptions that confused the eye and screamed, _Postmodernism_ _Was Here_. Lights hung here and there in oddly-shaped balls like squished neon goo, coloured in blues and reds and yellows and casting their colours across the purple, orange and red walls and the patrons.

Those lights, along with the confusing, clashing surroundings made her glad she'd dressed in nondescript colours. This was not to say that Ino herself was nondescript – oh, not at _all_. She may have been wearing very simple black jeans and a blue not-quite-long-enough tank top, but even simply dressed, she looked better than every other girl in the place and she knew it.

Tossing her hair and stepping down the unevenly-distanced steps to the main area of the restaurant, she was greeted by one of the wait staff immediately, and she enquired after the reservations under _Uchiha_ with an elegant, composed air. The air seemed to take a breath around her as she said the name, and she knew without a doubt that the gossip mills were already churning – _perfect_.

Now that her reputation as the first (and possibly only) girl to snare Sasuke for a date was secure, she just had to make the perfect impression.

The man gestured towards her table, telling her ingratiatingly that the woman who'd come to book for them had requested it specifically. It was tucked away in a poorly-lit corner, and the rectangular table and blocky, unoriginal chairs were an island of normalcy in the middle of the chaos surrounding them. It made it seem almost weirder.

She blinked, realising that the far corner had a slightly darker shadow in it. A grin broke out on her face; that was her Sasuke, curled up in the darkest part of the entire restaurant, peering out at the world with his back safely to the wall. She smiled firmly at the waiter and told him that she could see her date, emphasising the word, and he reluctantly nodded and returned to his post.

Ino tried not to feel self conscious as she made her way across the room to Sasuke's table. The _click_, _click_ of her heels on the stone-and-wood floor seemed very, very loud, and it took her so very long to cross that space.

Click. Her feet clattered. She wished she'd worn quieter shoes momentarily, but then she threw off that oddly self-conscious feeling and let her walk smooth out on its own, tilting her chin up and smiling as the table's shadows became more and more visible.

She slid easily and elegantly into her chair, feeling like she'd passed some sort of test just to get there. Sasuke made a vague noise of acknowledgement. Ino smiled. So he was quiet. She could deal with that.

"Sorry I'm late," she said by way of starting conversation. She wasn't late at all, actually, because Sakura had warned her against it.

"You're not late," he corrected flatly.

Ino shifted uncomfortably. "Well, no," she agreed, "but you were waiting."

"I was early."

Ino shrugged, pressing the conversation onwards. "That's good, though, right? I mean, at least that way you'll never be late."

Sasuke glanced at her for the first time. The weight of his eyes made her skin tingle, tighten. "Yes," he conceded.

Ino tapped her fingernails against the tabletop, looking for something to say. They were very loud.

Tap. Tap.

Tap. Tap.

Tap. Ta –

Sasuke's hand slammed down atop her knuckle on the table, pressing her hand against the cool metal top. His hands were warm. Ino felt herself blush.

"Desist." He growled. With a pause, he added, in a strained tone, "Please."

Please? _Please?_ Had Sasuke just asked her to _please_ desist? She let her hand still and relax beneath his palm. He lifted it off, but the warmth lingered a moment, sparking like electricity across her skin.

She swallowed, and he gave her a sharp, sudden look, warm with something intense and undefinable. She blinked under his scrutiny. It seemed rather like the world around her wasn't really there at all; one touch, and their attention was fixed on one another.

Fighting off the nervous laughter of her inner monologue, she reflected that at least they had that chemistry thing going. Really, really going.

What the hell could she talk about? _The weather? Too common. The quality of missions lately? To work-oriented. Tenten's pushiness? Too inane. Oh, no. Inordinately long pause_ – _say something, Ino!_

"Horrible décor, isn't it?"

_That was your brilliant conversation starter? _She was flustered, she decided – proximity, the closeness of their corner, the dark, whatever, it was adding to whatever hormonal imbalance was making her act like a twit. He didn't seem nearly as embarrassed by it as her, but she'd never seen him lose his poise in public before. Private might be a different story, though, she reflected – and she wasn't going there.

Not on the first date, anyway.

But maybe she wasn't going to get a second chance.

He made an agreeing noise.

Oh, bloody hell.

Ino sighed inwardly, giving no indication that she was at all disappointed. It looked as though his agreeing to a date hadn't made him any easier to read or understand. She cast her mind about for a topic they could discuss easily.

"So. What's it like working with a person who looks at ramen as a religious experience?"

"What's it like working with a person lazy enough to turn sleep into a profession?" he countered, cocking his head. His hair shifted, sliding across his eyes.

She grinned.

Dinner was easy at some points and awkward at others, and their conversation centred mostly on other people and work, sparking a heated debate at one point about compensation for injuries, with Ino taking the position of devil's advocate and insisting that the government didn't have the funding to improve its payouts and that other areas would inevitably suffer, and Sasuke arguing that the ninjas _made_ all of the money for the government and that, as such an important investment, they should be taken proper care of.

The heat from the argument faded into cooling awkwardness and silence. Ino set her glass down, tugging her hair back behind her ear again.

"Well," she said with an uneasy sort of smile, "I think you won that one." He hadn't, of course, but she'd humour him to coax more conversation out of him. She appreciated speaking with someone who'd challenge her opinions, at the very least.

He gave her a look that suggested that he was quickly tiring of human company and that what little patience he had was wearing thin with exposure. "Yes," he agreed.

She rolled her eyes at his incredible arrogance, but smiled all the same. "I think I've actually enjoyed myself tonight," she said reflectively, leaning back and tossing back her drink. They'd switched from water to sake at some point, and she thought that it was probably responsible for their sudden arguable camaraderie.

Sasuke shrugged. "Tolerable," he grunted reluctantly, looking over at her. He had extremely black eyes. With a strange look flickering across his face, he also downed his drink.

"Hmmm," she agreed, tracing the rim of her glass with the tip of one finger. She leant forward and smiled invitingly at him, fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously. He looked distinctly unimpressed, simply raising an eyebrow a fraction. "Do you think we've used up all of Tenten's money yet?" she asked.

He blinked, and the comment startled something between a laugh and a snort from him. She beamed. He considered for a moment, finally settling for, "I certainly hope so."

Ino nodded, looking around. "Although the décor has taken on a more appealing appearance after that last cup, do you think we might be leaving?"

He turned back to her, eyes narrowing speculatively as they slid across her skin. "Are you suggesting I take you home, Yamanaka?" he asked blandly.

Ino leaned forward, flicking her long hair across her shoulder to frame the other side of her face, smiled and raised an eyebrow in a clear challenge. "Think you can handle me, Uchiha?" she asked boldly.

He snorted derisively, raising his own eyebrow. "Are you implying that I wouldn't know what to do with a woman?" he growled, sliding his hands across the table as he leaned in. There was no teasing in the gesture; only aggression.

Ino drew that eyebrow up higher, tilting her head back questioningly. She didn't speak. Slowly, tension easing a little, Sasuke relaxed back. He watched her for a few minutes before getting to his feet and kicking back his chair.

"Maybe some other time," he said mockingly, tossing his head and leaving her to watch him walk across the floor to collect his hastily-grabbed coat from the man at the door. She watched, mouth gaping, as the door swung shut behind him. When there was only a crack left to her vision, he turned and flashed her his bone-melting smile. It was mocking and superior, but she detected something resembling real amusement under it.

Ino's spirits lifted. It was late and that her father would probably be waiting up, pacing the doorway, at home for her. She also stood, stretched out her shoulders, and waved at their waiter, whom she'd tipped because Sasuke had simply shrugged and insisted that the service was average at best. He grinned back.

She slipped out into the cool night air, finding it impossible to be annoyed that she hadn't even gotten a goodnight kiss or an offer to walk her home. His last words stuck in her brain, and she comforted what little hurt he had done to her ego with his open-ended implication of a second occasion like that.

Besides all that, she'd had fun. True, all they'd done was eat, drink and argue loudly enough that the other patrons had complained, which had only earned them a double-dose of killer glaring and a few derisive looks, but Ino still felt that there had been some connection there, if not mentally or emotionally, then at least physically.

She shuddered at the memory of that touch, glancing down at her hand as though she expected to see blisters. She swallowed and picked up her pace with confidence. If she somehow managed to procure a second date, she'd have no trouble getting what she wanted – and if that single touch between them was anything to go by, then together, they might defy gravity itself.

--------------------------------

Notes:

Wow, thanks for the reviews, guys. I'm so glad you're still enjoying this. I think that it's a little infeasible in some places, but I tend to be harder on my writing – particularly characterisation – than a lot of other people seem to be. If you do have any comments on my characterisation, or lack thereof, please, please, _please_ tell me. Constructive criticism is especially appreciated, although praise never really bothers me, either. P

So. Sasuke and Ino – what do you think? Should I keep trying to make it work, despite the many difficulties they'll inevitably have sustaining any kind of emotional balance? Or should I tear them to shreds and send Ino into unhealthy tailspins? Please, do give me your opinion.

One more note, this time on the Sasuke-and-Naruto dynamic. This story is fairly obviously AU, at least as far as manga events are concerned, so I'm trying for a Sasuke-Naruto relationship that's a little more... _evolved_, so I can use him as something resembling a support structure. I'm going for the sort of relationship where they're still rivals, they still have their spats and they still think that the other's way of doing things is stupid and illogical – but I hope that, now that they're about fifteen and they've been working together for – what? At least three or four years – that they understand each other fairly well, at least on a subconscious level.

I hope this rash of creativity on my behalf doesn't upset anybody, and that it's not too OOC. Also, apologies for the short (and late) chapter; I've been interstate and away from my internet connection and I've also got numerous other writing projects in the works (if anybody is interested in original work, feel free to email me).


	5. V Fanservice

**Chapter Five: Fanservice Chapter I**

This chapter's pretty fanservice-y. A couple of people requested more NejiTenten moments, so I tried to cram some in for you... well, at least some interaction.

Not much really _happens_ in this chapter, and it's a bit short, but it's fun and bouncy and will lead to jealousy, cutesy romantic metaphors and, er, hotel rooms.

Skimpy costumes HO!

--------------------------------

"Why are the women naked?" Tenten whispered to Neji.

"They're not naked," Neji answered disapprovingly. "It's a hot country – and we will need to fit in, so I'd try not to become too fixed in that opinion if I were you."

"...fit in?" Tenten asked. That sounded ominous to her. Sure, she wouldn't mind letting Neji wander around in the white-pants-and-oil ensemble that the men around here seemed to have going (as long as no other woman tried to lay a finger on him. That might accidentally cause something of a bloodbath), but the women... "Neji, they're _naked_."

"They're not naked. It's the custom."

"Is getting the shit beat out of you also the custom here? Because I don't think that's going to work for me."

Neji glanced around. "I _have _heard that women are not especially well-treated here," he admitted, following Tenten's eyes. "I don't think you need to be too concerned, however. I believe that you'd need to be an adulteress for the laws to take affect."

"Oh, goodie. Those other punishments should be left up to my father or husband, then," Tenten said dryly.

Neji shrugged. "It's their culture. You can't fault them for it."

"Uh-huh. Like it's your culture to brand the second son as inferior and force him to submit to a lifetime of veritable slavery?" Tenten asked sweetly. Neji stiffened. Tenten regretted her question almost immediately. Oh, no, time for damage control. "I'm sorry," she apologised with as much sincerity as she could muster. "I probably shouldn't have said that..."

He shrugged. "Whatever," he said as though it didn't concern him at all. "You will have to wear those clothes, though," he added.

"Neji! I've seen more cloth in a dental-floss bikini!" she snapped.

Neji looked at her speculatively. "Dental floss?"

"..._forget it!_"

He sighed. "Tenten. We're trying to be unobtrusive, aren't we?" he asked. If he thought she'd acquiesce just because she'd said something cruel, he could _think again_! He said cruel things all the time and she didn't bat an eyelash, but when _she _did it...

She looked around and fought not to cover her eyes. So. Much. Skin. The oil made it glitter in the burning sunlight. Why weren't they all fried?

His lips quirked into something like a smile. "Good. Look, a clothing shop."

Tenten glared at him, backing away slowly. She was behind him; he'd never notice that – "Ow, ow, _ow!_"

He didn't relinquish his grip on her hair. "Not a chance, Tenten," he said through gritted teeth and an insincere smile. He tugged her, protesting all the way, into the shop.

The owner looked up from the desk where an ancient cash-register, not dissimilar to the one in the Yamanaka store, collected dust. "Good day, foreigner. What can I do for you?" he asked.

"She needs clothes. Like the women out there." Neji said, tugging harder to dislodge Tenten's grip on the door. She clattered to the floor. Neji gave her another one of those looks.

The owner looked the miserable pile of disgruntlement that was Tenten and smiled. "Oh, yes, I can definitely find something to fit _you_," he purred, hands fluttering towards her to help her up.

"Oh, _yes,_ darling," he breathed. After a moment of tugging and straightening that left Tenten glowering and Neji narrowing his eyes at the man, the owner nodded to himself and stood up. "I shall return shortly..." he mumbled, wandering off to the back of the shop.

"Tenten, pretend you're professional," Neji rebuked when he was out of earshot.

"That's all well and good for you," Tenten responded sulkily, "but you don't have to walk around half-naked – and you don't get felt up by every self-important dickhead that comes your way!" she snapped.

"Oh?" Neji asked. His voice had gone soft and coaxing, gentle like a kunai wrapped in velvet.

Tenten growled and shook her head. "It doesn't matter," she said, turning her face away. "I'm just... getting a little sick of being abused because I don't have balls."

"On the contrary," Neji said, stepping closer and reaching out to touch hesitant fingers to the side of her neck closest to him. Her pulse pounded, her skin shivered, and she cursed herself for weakness. "It matters." He paused. "Tenten, what –"

"And you, sir, will you be requiring a set of new clothing?" the store owner grinned next to them. They both jumped. They'd been caught up in the moment there.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid_, Tenten thought. No second chances. The tightening around Neji's eyes said that it would be a long time before he let his attention wander again.

"Yes," he said. The owner clapped his hands excitedly, and, grabbing him by the arm, tugged Neji down the rows of material and hanging clothing. Tenten didn't think he had any idea how close he'd just come to losing not only his hand, but his whole arm.

Neji bore it with amazing fortitude, however, and even let the few "accidental" lingering touches slide by without comment. The owner rather disinterestedly directed Tenten towards the pile of clothing he'd decided would appeal to her size and shape. Once he'd gotten a hold of Neji, he was no longer interested in the wonders of the female physique. Tenten couldn't say she was surprised – or terribly put out – by this discovery.

The first decidedly unmanly shriek from Neji startled her, but she didn't rush forward to help; she was having difficulty containing her laughter, and he'd never forgive her for laughing at him.

She tried on several different items, finding most of them severely distasteful – the women here were obviously not born with enough breasts to fill out a thimble – and several others moderately obscene.

Finally, she settled on the white top with the most square millimetres of coverage she could find – although this was not very much and a _large _amount of cleavage was visible, but the ornamental, patterned, black tassels covered her ribs – and the black shorts that were _way too short_ but still _so much longer_ than the others she'd been given (surely in jest).

The final decision was over shoes. She couldn't wear her sandals, because they were obviously made for forest and cold, not dusty desert heat. There _were _sandals for purchase, but the women on the street seemed to be wearing an assortment of open-toed boots, so she decided to check those out. After all, keeping in fashion would keep her nondescript.

Although they would have made her legs look incredibly hot indeed, Tenten steered clear of the display of breakneck points; she liked her stilettos between the ribs, not on her feet. She spied something at the back of the display – leather. Leather was good; durable, strong, difficult to pierce with _senbon_. She dug them out and checked the size, which was in a series of numbers and letters that she didn't really understand. She tugged them on anyway, found them to be her size and fairly comfortable.

She took a look in the closest mirror. There was a lot of skin exposed, smooth and barley tanned and toned. The shoes weren't too high to move in, true, but she didn't have much fat on her body, and they forced her legs to look long. She flushed and glowered. She looked like meat on a hook, not a serious businesswoman. She wanted to cover herself, or to run back and put on some normal clothes.

What needed to be done, however, needed to be done... She sighed, adjusted her hair so the buns were not quite so messy, straightened her back, squared her shoulders and soldiered on. At least she could still conceal most of her weapons.

With this aspect of her mission thus completed, she straightened, cracked her spine and made her way back to the front of the store, where Neji was tapping his similarly-booted foot on the floor and glaring a slow, painful death at the owner. The man looked smugly pleased, despite the bright red handprint on his face.

Tenten smothered her smile. "Are we ready?" she asked.

Neji looked her up and down very carefully – almost as though he was actually searching for some defect in her dress. She raised an eyebrow, taking the opportunity to give him a look over as well.

Admittedly, the men wore almost as little as the women, but Neji didn't seem self-conscious or at all bothered by it. His pants were also white, and very nearly skin-tight, although she suspected that the store owner had had more of a hand in this than current fashions. There was also some vaguely transparent material tied to the top of the pants and cut into quarters. It hung just below his knees and had fancy gold patterns on the edges. She'd seen similar things on some of the men outside, but she was not quite certain of its purpose. Oddly, his boots were also open-toed and angled at the heel for height.

The fashions here were crazy.

She wondered if he'd keep it when they returned home.

Bringing her mind back to business, she frowned inwardly. He was very, _very_ pale. Would that mark them as foreigners?

"Yes," he agreed, "we're ready."

"Oh, sir, I must warn you that it is a custom here to spread this oil on the back and chest before going into the sun – it's charmed to protect the skin. I can assist with –"

"Thank you," Neji growled, snatching the bottle from his hands. "I believe you've _assisted_ with more than enough." He tossed his hair over his shoulder and stalked from the cool shade of the shop.

"This place is a dump." Tenten said pointedly, two hours later. She was slathering the oil on Neji's shoulders. Stubborn fool; he'd not bothered to stop and protect against the sunlight before commencing their tracking. His skin had been very pale, and now it was turning faintly red.

"Correct."

"Why would any decent assassin choose to live in this part of town?" Tenten asked. "Shouldn't he be getting paid enough to live somewhere a _little_ better?"

"She."

"She?" Tenten repeated. She felt guilty for assuming that the country's best assassin would be male; sort of like a traitor to her gender. Bloody hell. Why was everything in her life about being female?

"Yes, she. What? Don't you think a woman could do the job?" Neji asked sardonically.

_Thank you for driving it home, Glorious Leader,_ Tenten thought. She sighed. "Well, men tend to have certain... physical advantages," she said in a tone that left her meaning ambiguous.

"Keep your mind on business, Tenten," Neji responded without moving his eyes from the building. It was in one of the city's seedier districts; bustling streets and hawkers bawling their wares by day, red lights and gunshots in isolated alleyways by night.

Tenten blinked innocently, putting on a show even though she was standing behind him. She knew he was watching. "What? I was under the impression that men tended to be physically stronger than women, as a general rule. Was I wrong?"

"Tenten," he growled in warning.

"Yes, Neji?"

He turned his head to look at her directly. The veins near his eyes that stood out relaxed as the _byakugan_ slipped beneath the surface again. "Enough, please." He said.

_Please?_ Tenten raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. If he was down to pleading, it wasn't worth baiting him. She considered asking if anything was wrong, but that would just make him clam up.

"Got an ID on her yet?" she asked instead. "Because I'm sort of sick of sitting up here on this window ledge – and I think the owner of the place is getting a little suspicious – how long does it usually take for two people to check out a one-bedroom apartment?"

Neji snorted. "Would you be willing to interrupt?" he asked snidely. Tenten rolled her eyes again and opened her mouth to say something incredibly pithy that would have amazed the whole world, but he sighed and interrupted. "Besides, I can't see anything through the walls."

"You _what_?" Tenten asked instead. What was wrong? Did they know they were here? Were they in danger? Or worse, was Neji sick with some incurable disease that affected the Hyuuga?

He gave her ample time to panic before murmuring, "There are vines crawling up the inside of the walls."

She slowed down. "Huh?"

He gave her one of those "_could-you-**be**-any-more-thick?" _stares, sighed like he was the only intelligent person on the planet and deigned to explain, "Plants have chakra, too, you know."

She glared. "Alright, alright. Jeez. You can't see through them?"

"Can we get closer?"

Tenten threw up her arms, turning away from the window and sighing dramatically. "That was all you had to say, Neji. Those four little words!"

Neji shrugged. "I said them, didn't I?" he asked, sweeping past her and stalking out of the apartment.

The owner was waiting on the other side of the door, rubbing his hands together and offering them an oily smile. His gaze lingered on Tenten's mostly-bare chest and she fought to act like a normal inhabitant, something which did not involve crossing her arms and glowering.

"So, sir, now that you have seen the residence on offer, I'm sure you'll agree –"

"Totally unacceptable." Neji snapped. "I wouldn't let my dogs sleep there, let alone my woman."

One of Tenten's hands twitched with the barely-contained desire to strangle the bastard. Just because _he_ was pissy and sunburned did _not _mean that he could take it out on her. She smiled as though she was flattered by his concern for her welfare and shrugged apologetically at the owner of the apartment.

"Your woman?" she snarled as soon as they were out of earshot. "My knife, my dog – my _woman_?"

Neji shrugged. "Women are chattel here," he said with a shrug. "I'm acting the part."

"You're allowed to act the part," Tenten agreed, "but you're _not_ allowed to enjoy it!"

"Whatever," Neji snorted.

They walked past the building with their boots clicking on the hot pavement. Neji frowned at his shoes. Tenten could guess that he was worrying about the noise. Well, if they had to sneak, they wouldn't need these ridiculous getups anyway, she consoled herself, squaring her shoulders and trying not to look like she was self-conscious.

Neji certainly didn't. His body was adapting so fast that the reddish burn was already starting to fade back to perfect white. Tenten amused herself for several hundred metres by watching the muscles shift and bunch in his back as he walked.

"Have you been listening to _anything_ I've said?" he snapped suddenly, turning and tapping two long fingers down onto her nose as though she was an unruly puppy.

"Huh?"

He growled. The heat was beginning to fray the delicate threads of his temper. "I _said_, the plants are poisonous, the woman's in there, and so is the fiancé. I'm thinking we tag them until about a week before the wedding, kill the assassin, collect the bounty on her head, take the woman captive and make sure she marries the idiot."

Tenten nodded, refusing to think of how she'd feel if she were in that poor woman's situation. "Wait. There's a bounty on her head?"

Neji shrugged. "Well-known, freelance assassin? Probably."

Tenten nodded. "Alright. We just... play it by ear if she changes her situation, then?"

"What else can we do?" Neji asked. "Communicate this to Lee. I'm going to find somewhere close to this place for us to stay."

"In this part of the city?" Tenten asked distastefully.

Neji halted, twitched, and then turned back to her. "If you don't want to be _abused_ for a woman, stop _acting_ like one," he snarled before stalking off.

Tenten blinked at his retreating back. "_What was that_?" she shrieked at him, breaking into a jog to keep up with his longer, angry strides. "Where the hell do you get off –"

"Tenten. Contact Lee."

She stopped walking. He didn't. She swallowed.

He sighed and turned around, sweeping his hair away from his face with an absent sort of movement. "We can talk later."

"We will," she growled, stalking back along the pavement.

It was not difficult to locate the closest bird house, but finding a bird that would be able to find Lee was somewhat more difficult. Eventually, she gave up on finding a bird to take mail to the hotel and searched out a branch of the same hotel instead, pleased that they'd stayed at a well-known chain.

She argued a little with the desk clerk and made a lot of noise when her request was rejected. She asked for the manager. The manager was not available. She asked for the manager to be made available. That could not be done. She shoved a knife under the clerk's nose and suggested that it be done immediately.

The manager was very polite.

She scribbled down a very obscure note for Lee involving many ridiculous and improbably metaphors that would surely get his brain fired, rolled it up and shoved it in the letter-tube.

She thanked the pale-faced clerk and reluctantly left the air-conditioned comfort of the hotel for the sweltering heat of the outdoors. Neji's silhouette was clearly visible atop the building directly across the road.

Well, that saved her looking for him. She crossed the wide, dusty street and looked up at him, shading her eyes from the sunlight. "Yo."

He glanced down in acknowledgement.

"Find somewhere?" Tenten asked. He nodded, slipping to the ground next to her like a very pale shadow.

"This way."

Tenten followed him for about ten minutes, paying more attention to the people around her than to where they were going. They arrived and she blinked. "That's, er... expensive," she said, staring up at the building.

Neji shrugged. "I'm not paying for it."

Tenten nodded. "Yes, but... isn't doing stuff like this a problem during an economic crisis?" she asked pointedly.

Neji cocked his head. "Not really," he said.

She waited. He frowned at her. "Are you coming?" he asked.

"Elaborate," Tenten insisted. She didn't understand much about the country's problems, but she'd heard the words "economic crisis" being tossed around too often to ignore it. Neji would probably think she was stupid, but it was Neji, so it didn't really matter. He knew better, and if he chose to think she was simple, well... that was his choice. And his mistake.

He sighed. "Listen," he instructed as they walked through the doors. "The problem is economic, but it has more to do with a labour shortage than monetary problems. We almost got our arses handed to us by Sound, so we can't keep up with demand. And because accounting is understaffed... they'll let it slide rather than waste the time chasing it up."

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Don't you _ever_ think about anybody but yourself?" she asked.

He gave her an odd sort of look. "No," he said as though it had been a really stupid question.

It probably had been. A more irritating woman might have pouted and asked, "_What? Not even meee?"_ but Tenten wasn't even going to go there. "I suppose not," she agreed instead. "So this isn't going to cause any problems?" she asked again, just to be certain.

Neji shrugged. "Aside from being relatively unethical, you mean?" he asked.

"Well... yeah."

"No problems."

She smiled. "That's alright then."

--------------------------------

"So? How'd it go?" the blonde _bounced_. Sakura grinned and looked very interested. She'd already heard most of the story from Ino, he'd bet, so he didn't know why she cared so damn much.

Why was he surrounded by morning people?

And where the hell was Kakashi?

Some things don't change, no matter how much they should.

They'd gathered on this fine day for a training session, because no matter how independent they were as single shinobi now days, teams stuck together, and Kakashi knew their strengths and weaknesses back-to-front and upside-down, so it just made _sense_ to keep training together.

Otherwise, he _would not _be standing here in this ridiculously bright sunlight at eight am. They'd decided to meet a five, but all three of them, even by-the-book Sakura, had come to the realisation sometime last year that it was better to just get there a few hours later than the suggested time.

None of them had managed to be later than Kakashi yet.

Sasuke broke out of his reverie when he was whacked over the head with an explosive scroll.

"Naruto!" Sakura barked, "Don't hit Sasuke!" Some habits die hard. "Well, not with an explosive scroll, anyway," she added a moment later, blushing.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

Naruto grinned. "It'd be his own fault if he couldn't dodge it!" he declared.

Sasuke grunted. It was _way _too early for this. Naruto, remaining undiverted by an answering challenge, persisted in bugging him. Sakura, eyes sparkling ominously, offered her silent encouragement and support from the sidelines.

"So?" Naruto grinned.

Sasuke grunted and ignored him.

"C'mon, Sasuke-bastard. What, did you fall on your face or something?" Naruto asked, hopping up onto the bridge so he could swing his legs and gesticulate with windmill arms.

Sasuke twitched.

"Oh, _I_ know! Sasuke got stood up!" Naruto crowed, using his hands for leverage to jump up to a crouch on the top railing of the bridge.

Sakura rolled her eyes. It was an obvious untruth – who'd stand Sasuke up? – but it would certainly get a rise out of him.

"Stood-up! Stood-up! Stood-up! Stood – Oh, hi Kakashi-sensei! Guess what? Sasuke got stood –"

There was the loud _crack_ of someone being slapped across the face, followed by a yelp and a splash. Sasuke rubbed his wrist.

Kakashi's single sleepy eye blinked. "Good morning, all," he waved.

Sakura turned back from watching Naruto's splashing and cursing. "You're late," she informed him. It had the half-hearted air of something that had been said many times before. Kakashi blinked slowly. He scratched the back of his neck and closed his eyes in a smile.

"There were some oranges spilled at the market, and this nice little old lady tripped over and sprained her ankle, so I had to take her down to the hospital..." They all knew why he was late so often by now, and nobody really minded much anymore, but he still seemed to delight in making up stories for them.

"Liar."

Kakashi gave her a hurt look.

Naruto crawled out of the water. "Hey, Kakashi-sensei," he said, grinning breathlessly, "Sasuke got stood –" Sasuke kicked him in the head a little harder than what was really required to shut him up.

"I was not stood up," he corrected evenly.

"Oh." Naruto rolled over and blinked up at him. "Really?" he asked.

"IDIOT!" Sakura yelled. "You actually _believed _that?"

Kakashi smiled serenely at his team. Sasuke was sulking quietly to himself, Naruto was loudly pleading innocence and ignorance and Sakura was kicking the shit out of the blonde for some not-quite-imagined slight.

"Ah, normalcy."

---------------------------------

Okay. That's it. Chapter Five, done. I've been away for a while, but I'm back. I don't know if that means that this will get updated any more regularly, but it will definitely get updated. I'm starting to have fun writing it again, so hopefully it will also be a more fun story to read.

If you have any con/crit or comments to give me, please do. Furthermore, while next chapter should have more SasuIno, do you think it needs _very _much more NejiTenten? I mean, I've had a number of people asking for more of that pairing, so I tried to shove some in this chapter, but does it need a higher level of... intensity?

Love,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Authoress


	6. VI Normalcy?

See first chapter for disclaimer.

--------------------------------

**Chapter Six: Normal?**

--------------------------------

If this was normalcy, it was overrated. Sasuke had never really considered himself normal, anyway.

Naruto was _still_ bouncing. He wasn't quite sure why, since there was really very little to be so cheerful about today; Ichiraku was crowded (extra people were never a plus from Sasuke's point of view), Yamanaka was on one side of him and Naruto the other. His ramen had been stolen and devoured before he'd even had half of it (he didn't like the taste and it was of nearly no nutritional value, but it was _his_, damnit), and the mission had been like some vicious comedy of errors, all of which he blamed on his assigned partner.

They'd been sent out on a fairly simple mission: kill or permanently incapacitate the guards, grab the feudal lord's daughter, bring her back, report, get paid.

They'd ended up running at breakneck speeds through the canopy, carrying an unconscious woman, trailing expensive fabric and being chased by a wild boar. For two adolescents who could deal easily with men and women older, wiser, and allegedly more powerful than themselves, Sasuke felt that they'd had an inordinate amount of difficulty dispatching what amounted to an angry pig.

To be fair, the retreat had probably not been the worst part of the mission. The worst part had probably been when they'd returned back, unconscious noblewoman in tow (she had fallen into a swoon shortly after Naruto had rasengan'ed his way through three men, sending them all over the room, and, while he and Sasuke didn't believe that she was in any danger, they had not had the time or inclination to see to her revival), to submit their preliminary verbal report and hand her back to her father.

Neither Sasuke nor Naruto had foreseen the possible repercussions of removing (tearing off, actually, due to their haste, and it showed) her outer clothing. The thick brocade, while very rich and certainly an adequate status-symbol, had been long, needlessly heavy, and more than a little irritating to Sasuke (who hadn't let Naruto carry her, on the only-half-joking basis that the idiot would drop her, she would die and they wouldn't get paid). They had persevered until they got to the stream, where it almost drowned both the lady in question and her cranky rescuer. This was where it came off and was left to continue its journey to the bottom of the streambed without them.

When they got back, however, that was not what her father automatically assumed had transpired. Since the kidnapping had been a purely political move, wrought by men who wanted nothing more than his compliance, he had no reason to expect that his daughter's virtue had been impinged upon by his enemies. Thus, when she was returned to him unconscious and half-dressed in torn, bloody petticoats, he did not automatically assume that his political enemies had disgraced her, or that her five-foot-four rescuers had had difficulty with a brocade train longer than they were.

Oh, no, what he assumed was quite different. And while Sasuke may have exhibited little more than a quiet, supercilious sort of scorn towards someone who would question his honour under such circumstances, Naruto would not be silenced (ever).

Naruto was loud under normal circumstances. When he was flooded with self-righteous fury, he could measure on the Richter scale. By the time Tsunade had, with her usual heavy-handed, red-faced diplomacy, calmed things down, the poor lord looked as though he might be developing severe PTSD.

Naruto had been booted out. Sasuke had had to give their report alone, and was submitted to Tsunade's rant about Naruto's lack of propriety (although her wording was a little different) in his stead. If receiving the pay for the job repaired his temper at all, being asked to deliver Naruto's to him reversed this.

So he was forced to track down Naruto to deliver his money (Hokage's orders. He was on thin enough ice already due to the whole running away and betrayal thing, so he didn't dare argue over something so trivial), and was subsequently dragged off to Ichiraku because the blonde needed either money (unlikely, since he'd just been paid) or company (perhaps a little more probable, although why Sasuke was chosen was an interesting question) or both for eating ramen.

He asked, a little snidely, why they hadn't just started taking the money out of his pay. Nevertheless, he allowed himself to be pulled along. The woman at Ichiraku flashed him a smile that, for once, he found neither offensive nor coquettish.

He was then subjected to Naruto's relentless, rambling noises amidst the enthusiastic inhalation of ramen for the better part of two hours. He did try to leave – he could be masochistic sometimes, yes, but not _that _masochistic – but Naruto grabbed him by the collar and growled something incomprehensible about owing him. Sasuke would have inquired, but decided that he knew better than to ask Naruto about his logic. That was just asking for a headache.

"I didn't think ramen was your thing," a soft voice murmured from somewhere behind him. He turned quickly. He hadn't sensed anybody approach, which showed exactly how lost in his sulk he had become. Such deep brooding should be left for private, where any intrusion would be felt with greater ease.

"Yamanaka," he said coldly.

She didn't look particularly offended. Behind her, Shikamaru yawned. Chouji seemed to be posing him a deeply philosophical question. Sasuke fancied that it probably had more to do with corn chips, but he really wasn't interested anyway.

"Correct," she responded, flipping her hair behind her ear and hopping up on the stool next to him.

He wondered how he should act. He had discovered that he was not... _completely_... adverse to her company earlier in the week. He knew that he could not afford the distraction of entanglements, however. He could barely afford the distraction of his friends, really, but they were stubborn and aggressive and he had long ago realised that his feelings on the matter would be summarily ignored, just as his refusals had been analysed and swiftly rejected.

He ignored her and hoped she got the idea.

She did not.

Or, rather, he suspected, she did, but this cold behaviour was being effectively and methodically ignored.

Next to him, between slurps, he thought he heard Naruto mutter, "Finally, she's got the right idea," but it was too low for him to be certain, and thus too low to beat him over the head for. He considered doing it anyway, and excusing himself on the basis that Naruto was just generally an idiot.

On the other side of his seat, Ino's light voice inquired as to today's mission. He felt the urge to tell her about it from somewhere deep in his mind. This urge was systematically dismembered, decapitated and defenestrated (in that order).

So she was another one of _those_, was she? He glowered at the ramen set in front of him, where the fishcakes had been arranged into a smiley face. Resolutely, he ignored her.

The fishcakes smiled innocently up at him.

--------------------------------

Someone was tugging on his hair. Someone was going to _die_.

Neji, as a rule, was not a morning person, although his I-hate-mornings expression was easily mistakable for his I-hate-everything expression and this was therefore not common knowledge. He cracked a bleary eye open, reached behind him, and slapped something.

"Ow," Tenten said, without much spirit. "What was that for?"

"Stop pulling on my hair," Neji rasped. His voice croaked in the mornings; gravely and rumbling. Tenten found this very amusing, and tried to elicit as much conversation as possible just after he'd woken. She didn't often get to wake up next to him, though, aside from on mission, so she was rarely indulged.

"I'm not pulling your hair," she said placidly, tugging again, "I'm plaiting it."

"Oh, well that's just _fine_," he growled. He yanked his hair over his shoulder and held onto it as though it had been grievously wounded. Tenten snickered quietly as he set about the process of reversing the damage she'd done. "What do you want, anyway?" he groused after he'd done, rolling over to glare at her.

She reached out and ran one finger along his temple, where spidery blue veins could be seen under the not-quite-opaque, paper-white skin. "Nothing," she said, reversing her nail and dragging it lightly back along the same path.

He batted her hand away. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" she asked innocently, immediately going back to letting her fingers play around his eyes.

He batted her hand away again. "Don't touch the chakra paths."

"Why not?" she asked, going back to it.

He slapped her wrist hard; sharp and warning. "The _byakugan_ requires a lot of chakra to work. You get used to it, but the pathways still get worn."

She thought back to her brief training in chakra circulation. The pathways were like streambeds; when too much chakra flowed through them, or when it flowed through them for a long period of time, they became worn and were forced to become bigger, wider, shouldering other nerves, veins and capillaries aside. In short, Tenten surmised, it hurt. "What do you do to make it stop?" she asked curiously.

Neji gave her an odd look. "Stop using it," he said.

She supposed that was obvious.

His eyes narrowed suddenly. "Did you wake me up just to plait my hair and annoy me, or did you want something?"

"Ah... no," Tenten said cheerfully. "I was just awake. And bored," she admitted.

"Awake. And bored." He repeated in a deadpan. "You didn't consider, oh, I don't know, getting up and doing some work?"

She grinned. "Well, I did, but I didn't think you'd want me to do anything without you," she pointed out, "and I can't go out on the streets alone here. What would people think of an unchaperoned woman?"

"That she was a whore." He rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom.

"Rhetorical question," Tenten sighed.

Neji didn't respond.

She flopped back to the bed and closed her eyes. As yet, she hadn't been able to coax so much as a kiss from him. It wasn't that she was trying especially hard, simply that he didn't seem interested, which was almost as insulting as if she had been trying. She wondered if it would be crossing any lines if she just tackled him. Probably not, since it was only the emotional space he was cagey about, but it might set a bad precedent while they were working.

While Tenten tried to come to some conclusive decision on this issue, Neji returned from the bathroom. His hair was damp and he was wearing the same, skin-tight clothing that all the men wore here. This was not pretty when they were obese or unfortunate-looking, but Tenten found that it looked most satisfactory on Neji.

She was also fairly certain that he noticed her noticing. It would explain the way he'd managed to position himself in the light _just so_, and the way he closed his eyes and slid his fingers into his hair slowly to pull the few clingy strands away from his neck.

She sighed again. Maybe he hadn't noticed her noticing. She should think about the mission. The mission was going to keep her paid.

"Where to?" she asked. She was fairly certain she knew, but there was no point in getting him miffed because she hadn't asked.

He shrugged. "We're just tagging. I don't see any reason for a prolonged stakeout," he said with distaste. By the book, they probably should have done exactly that, but neither of them was particularly attached to the book, and nobody liked stakeouts, even if they did constitute a surprisingly large part of a ninja's job.

"Want to check who has a bounty on this woman, then?" Tenten suggested, rolling out of bed and pulling what there was of her own costume on.

Neji nodded, but didn't look up, busy as he was with lacing his boots. "You know," he commented, "You look more naked in that thing than you do when you're actually naked."

Tenten covered her chest self-consciously with one arm, suddenly unduly aware that he could see right through her clothing. She admonished herself with the knowledge that not only had he seen everything (_absolutely_ everything, except perhaps some parts of her scalp due to the chakra-structure of hair), but that he could see through everyone else's clothing, too. Which, considering her other team mates, was a creepy thought.

"You're thinking too much," he added.

Tenten glowered at him. "Should I just go out naked, then?" she muttered sarcastically anyway.

"No." His voice was another light parry to a stupid comment, but there was something steely and not-joking underneath it. At least his jealousy was still intact. "Are you done?"

"Tie this," Tenten said, turning her back to him. She could do it herself, but she'd require a mirror. "Tighter," she instructed, then, "Ow, ow, not that tight! It's not a freaking corset!"

His breath was warm on her shoulder when he made that huffy little sound that meant, _I am so terribly manly, why do you expect me to know anything about this?_

To most women, that noise meant taking their own bras off, dealing with pregnancies (wanted or otherwise) alone and uncertainty as to whether or not a particular skirt made them look fat. To Tenten, it meant that he didn't know if the child could still be delivered after the pregnant lady had been decapitated but highly doubted it, that he wasn't interested in her petty gossip and didn't really care if he'd somehow made training sessions the social highlight of her life, and that he had no idea how to lace up her tops. She sort of felt that she'd gotten the better deal, but she wasn't about to tell _him_ this. Instead, she made a put-upon little noise in response and went about the proper instruction.

Eventually, they had her laced into her barely-there clothing to her satisfaction and took to the streets.

Even at seven am, it was light like midday in winter back home, and the air tasted thick, warning of later heat and humidity. Most of the shops were closed. A sign creaked forlornly although there was no breeze, prompting both of them to reach for weapons and spin to face the noise, but it was just a crow settling atop the worn wood. It croaked at them.

Neji looked at it carefully for a moment, but shrugged and moved on. Tenten knew how he felt; there was no way to tell the difference between a summoned animal and a regular one.

They headed to a bar on the corner of two main streets. It was a good position for business. It was open, which was unusual for this time of day, and the curtains were all drawn (fairly normal for this area, since it was believed that this helped keep it cool as the day heated up), but otherwise it looked very normal for a fairly well-off business. But both of them recognised the sign out the front, the tankard with a line through it. It might have been a bar, but it was also a haunt for info-peddlers. The image of the tankard had nothing to do with it, just the strike through it; the universal symbol for missing-nin.

These were neutral places, accepted only because they would give valuable information to official ninja as well as the runaways and traitors; quid pro quo it was expected that there would be no violence on those premises from ninja on either side of the laws, and that the owners would keep their heads down and never remember a face.

They slipped in casually. Looks flashed in their direction from the dark room; glittering eyes and glittering metal in the sparse light that entered from beneath and around the drawn curtains. Neji ignored them. Tenten could not be quite so confident. She was not a great fan of these places.

The information they wanted was local and fairly generalised, so Neji led their way to the bar, where he swung up onto a stool like he'd spent hours practising how to look graceful doing it, and ordered them drinks, submitting his enquiry to the barman between orders. Tenten slid onto her stool in a less graceful but more sedate movement and leaned forward onto the polished surface. If there were any real customers in here, they were probably wondering what exotic drink Neji had ordered that had cost quite so much in gold.

She stared at the highly-polished wood and studiously ignored all other patrons. Missing-nin tended to be a bit high-strung, and would not take being stared at well. That was if any of these people were missing-nin. Regular ninja could be just as bad; one second you were reaching forward to detach her hair from her earring, then next you were breathing through a hole in your neck while she apologised for her instincts.

She tried not to think of herself like that, but knew, if she survived that long, it was her ultimate destination. She'd make jounin, but she'd also sacrifice some of her sanity.

"Stop thinking so hard," Neji told her firmly, one hand coming to rest on her very bare shoulder abruptly. She jumped.

Tenten looked up sheepishly and smiled a little. "Yeah, okay," she agreed, but then went on. "You ever wonder if one day you'll be cold, obsessive-compulsive and paranoid, too?"

Neji's eyes flicked towards her, even though his face didn't change. "Tenten, my kitchen cupboard has traps set around it. And going back to your house forty-five minutes into a training session to make sure you've locked the door to your house – _in a ninja village_?" he didn't have to go on. He'd made his point – they were already not-quite-right in the head.

"I only did that once," Tenten muttered defensively.

Neji shrugged and didn't respond, which was far more telling than any patronising, _of course you did_s, that someone else might have offered.

The barman came back and lit up a cigarette. Looking closer, she noticed he was unshaven and rather seedy looking. The drinks he brought were severely watered down and not particularly flavourful, to put it diplomatically. He and Neji entertained casual, polite conversation that looked very normal and natural indeed for a few moments before he chocked down another breath and turned abruptly away to see if anybody needed anything else.

Looking at their surroundings (the wary eyes, the flash of white teeth filed to points, the occasional whisper of someone counting his heartbeat) Tenten wondered if this was one stereotype she was just not going to beat.

--------------------------------

"Seriously, what's her damage?" Naruto wondered aloud.

Sasuke set the last trap, wondering why Tsunade kept assigning them together. At the same time, he was wondering if he could accidentally shoot Naruto down from his squat on the ceiling while "testing" the traps. No. It had been years since his traps had required testing and he knew he'd done them correctly.

He checked them again anyway, in order, warding off the ever-present feeling that something was going to backfire with familiar routine. He wasn't even sure that he was still afraid that they weren't perfect, but he checked anyway.

"What are you talking about now, idiot?" he growled. They were fine. Perfect. He went back to the start and checked them all again.

"Yamanaka Ino, I mean," Naruto elaborated, shaking his head and dropping to the stone floor of the temple. It was night, lit only by torches, empty but for the ninja, the charred remains of the scroll containing their mission and some priceless religious artefact. Naruto thought it looked sort of like a pie.

"Uh-huh," Sasuke mumbled, preoccupied with checking the traps.

"Stop that, would you?" Naruto demanded, kicking at his wrist irritably. "Why does everyone I know have some weird disorder?"

Sasuke caught his foot and flipped him casually into the wall. Naruto hit it feet-first and bounded back easily. "It's suspected that the heightened level of stress for prolonged periods of time causes it," Sasuke recited in the sort of drone Naruto generally only heard from Sakura when she was telling him about some medical procedure. "The body is exposed to stressors which prompt chemical reactions relating to stress and anxiety in the brain until it can no longer stop the response, even when the actual source of the stress is no longer present. Leads to anxiety disorders. Fifth edition chuunin handbook, chapter seven, passage thirteen, line –"

"I get it," Naruto growled, watching Sasuke go about checking the traps. "I get it. But if that's the case, why don't more of us have them?"

Sasuke shrugged and didn't respond.

Naruto sighed like he was terribly set-upon. "Must just be the ones with a predisposition to personality defects – like you. Anyway," he went on quickly, squatting down next to Sasuke and disabling his trap with a few quick seals, just for fun. Breaking the routine, Sasuke rushed over, bashed Naruto over the head (a hit which was absorbed for the most part, and then ignored) and set to repairs. "What's wrong with Ino?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Anxiety disorder?" he asked sarcastically.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Must be. Nobody in her right mind would want to spend hours talking to a brick wall."

Sasuke grunted.

"Like that!" Naruto said, very pointedly. "Just listen to yourself!"

Sasuke did, pausing in his movements. He could hear his steady, measured breathing, which he began to count. This was calming. He felt his heartbeat. "Normal," he noted, relaxing from his wire-tension for a moment.

Naruto made a pained noise. "That's _not_ what I meant," he groused. "You're... you're... you're _such_ a complete social _retard_," he pronounced.

"Who's talking, idiot?" Sasuke asked.

"I am," Naruto said, sitting down on top of Sasuke's legs so he couldn't move on to the next trap. "And you're listening."

Sasuke gave him a sardonic, lopsided smile. "You can lead a horse to water..."

"Or you can just shove it down his ungrateful throat in a tube," Naruto finished pointedly. "It's your choice, though," he added sweetly.

Sasuke sighed. He could see that there was very little chance of him getting away before Naruto had had his rant, whatever he was trying to tell him this time.

He glared. Snorted in resignation, turned his head away. Mumbled, "Whatever."

This was taken as acquiescence. Thankfully, Naruto tended to be blunt and to the point.

"Thank you. Now shut up and listen, bastard," the blond started, shoving his finger under his nose. "If you're trying to get a girl to like you, you have to respond when she talks to you."

"Because you would be the authority on this?" Sasuke responded snidely, forgetting that he wasn't meant to be interested _at all _in light of the opportunity to make a sarcastic comment.

"More than you, obviously," Naruto snapped back. "Now shut up and let me –"

The attack came in a cloud of smoke and several shadowy figures. Naruto coughed and sputtered, but didn't bother moving from Sasuke's legs. One of the traps was triggered. There was a stricken shout, followed by a dull wet thud.

When the smoke cleared, the other three were standing there, staring at their fallen ally, stupefied.

"Great," Sasuke growled, prodding at Naruto experimentally to see if he'd be moving any time soon. The blond stayed put. "Why do we always end up fighting off the rookies?" he complained, glaring at the men around them as though they could be blamed for being such poor thieves.

Naruto shrugged, and then went back to the topic at hand. "You're gonna ask her out," he proclaimed, so suddenly that Sasuke almost fell over.

"We'll... just be taking this priceless artefact, then," one of the men said, sliding past them. Another trap went off, taking one of his legs with it. He fell to the floor, clutching the cherry-red stump, clamping his hands around it in a vain attempt to stem the bleeding.

"What?" Sasuke asked incredulously, squinting at him as though he'd lost his mind. He recovered quickly, though. He eyed Naruto suspiciously and wondered if he'd completely missed the point. "I'm an avenger," he reiterated angrily, "I can't afford weakn –"

"Quit that angsty emo crap, would you?" Naruto growled. "Ino's a chuunin –"

"Er... hello? Hired ninja?" one of the two remaining men standing asked, licking his lips and walking nervously forward to the centre of the room.

" – she can take care of herself!"

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, leaning into Naruto. "My entire family was the _police _force of this village, moron!" he yelled. "If Itachi can take _them_ out, what makes you think one little chuunin – and that's not even the _point_! I'm not _interested_, dumbf–!"

"Who says he'd hurt her anyway?" Naruto cut him off, leaning forward. Their noses were almost touching. Their eyes met with angry intensity.

The next trap went off, triggered by a stray foot. Sasuke ducked the piece of flesh that flew above his head. Naruto ended up with a splash of blood right across his nose. The last man looked between them.

"Oh, please, please just kill me," he said, looking ill at the visage of the pieces of his fallen comrades. "Do it quickly, please," he begged, lowering to his knees right next to them and letting his head fall forward, exposing the vulnerable parts of his neck.

"Do you _mind_?" Naruto turned and growled in his face finally, grabbing his shirt and shaking him. "We're _trying_ to have a _conversation_. Go home or whatever!" He turned back to Sasuke.

"You're... letting me go?"

"Didn't you hear him?" Sasuke snarled, low and menacing. His eyes whirred in angry, candy-red swirls. "Get lost."

He swallowed loudly and backed away. "Er... right!" the man said, jumping up and running out the temple door. He was hit by a projectile from the entrance trap Sasuke had set. There was a nasty squelching sound, and he dropped.

"Hey, that's four down. Mission accomplished," Naruto mumbled, shaking his head incredulously. Sasuke used that moment of distraction to tip him over and get up. He grabbed his bag and left, dodging the other traps and hightailing it into the forest. Not that he was running away from that confrontation with Naruto – as if he'd run from that idiot! – no, he was just retreating momentarily to adjust his defences.

Naruto followed his steps carefully, so he didn't accidentally set off any of the traps. He was sure he'd be okay, but he didn't have any great desire to try his luck – and Sasuke did have very good eyes for aim and trajectory, so it was unlikely that any of the better-concealed traps were ineffectual.

"Still think you should ask her out!" he called after Sasuke's retreating figure, which flipped him the bird and kept moving.

Naruto growled. "That's it, asshole," he decided, shouldering his pack more comfortably and starting off at a hard, steady pace. "I try to be nice, and this is what I get for it? I'm gonna kick your arse, bastard..."

--------------------------------

Hi, guys! Sorry it took so long to update this time, but once again, school calls. Loudly and insistently. Just a quick note to say that I'm terribly sorry if this chapter is as rife with OOC-ness as I suspect it to be, and that I was too lazy to proof it. Apologies.

Love,

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Authoress


	7. VII Building Momentum

**Chapter Seven: Building Momentum**

See first chapter for disclaimer.

--------------------------------

"Ehehe... no, I really don't want to, uh, _play_, thanks," she mumbled, keeping her eyes down and walking past the men very fast, trying to act like a local. If someone had propositioned her in Konoha, she probably would have laughed at them, or just ignored it. Here, she had to be polite.

It figured that the second she was out of Neji's presence, she had to be accosted. Tenten was sick of relying on Neji to keep their cover intact. How did women in this country survive if they had to have men around them every time they stepped outside? She was about to go crazy.

It was the eighth day. Neither of the women they'd been tracking had so much as shown their faces, which made Tenten a little nervous – after all, it could just be a cleverly-crafted illusionary technique, couldn't it? Neji assured her that it was them, and that they'd kill the assassin as soon as they got wind of movement. Tenten didn't like to think of the poor woman, waiting to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the altar. She wasn't about to let Tsunade down, though. Not her idol, and not when she'd felt it like a personal challenge. In that way, Tenten was like everyone else on her team: she did not like to lose.

One open-toed, black, leather boot slid in front of her, obviously intended to trip her up. The man attached to it wasn't necessarily ugly, but that didn't mean Tenten was in any way interested. She glowered at his chest, didn't make eye contact.

Here, there was only one kind of woman that went unaccompanied around the streets and boldly met the eyes of strange men. Tenten had no desire to look like a whore.

"Excuse me," she said politely, sidling away from the man, who laughed and caught her around the waist, tugging her closer.

Tenten closed her eyes and wished for patience. She received none, and quickly jammed the heel of her boot down on the arch of the man's foot and shoved the heel of her palm into his nose. She heard the wet crack of bone and used the time from that move to turn and knee him in the gut. He doubled over, so Tenten delivered a solid hit into his solar plexus.

Then she stepped away and let him crumple. She closed her eyes, breathed deep, and felt a modicum of calm return to her. Violence was very therapeutic, really. She could have killed him, really; he was not the sort that looked like anybody would miss him. She didn't, instead smiling benignly and turning away.

Oh, Tenten, she thought to herself, you are such a philanthropist.

Now. Lunch. That was her original mission; leave Neji standing up on the most useful rooftop in the blistering sunlight to watch the women, and find something for them to eat.

It was grunt work, usually the sort of stuff they sent Lee off to do when they couldn't handle any more pep talks or proclamations, but she was just happy to be out of the sun for a while. True, there was exposure on the ground, but she could hide from the burning light in the shadows cast by the surrounding buildings.

There was greasy vendor food to be had on the streets. She went from stall to stall, gingerly sniffing at the goods and hoping to stumble across something she recognised. She was out of luck in that department, however, so she just picked something that didn't look lethal from the cleanest vendor she could find, which turned out to look something like what her mother served, but smelt a whole lot better.

Tenten half-expected Neji to recognise the food she'd brought and veto it entirely, just because he liked to be difficult, but he accepted the edibles, sniffed suspiciously at them for a moment, glanced at them with the _byakugan_, shrugged and took a cautious bite.

"Edible?" she asked, eyeing her own food reluctantly.

Neji shrugged again. "Passable," he grunted.

She nodded, taking a tiny nibble of her own unidentifiable foodstuff. Some sort of vegetable, at least, she thought in relief. She never really trusted the meat from strange places; who knew what it was, or what had been done to it?

"Anything new?" she asked, wiping the sweat from her neck with her spare hand.

Neji made a negative noise. "She's still sewing. No visitors. Hasn't spoken today."

"My god, she must be bored. Pity. I could use a break. Even a nice fight right about now would be welcome..."

"Mmm," Neji agreed. There was silence.

In the afternoon, Tenten tried for some sleep. That night was her turn to watch. If it had been her, she'd have gone back to the hotel room for the night, but she had the feeling Neji would be camping out beside her for the night. Despite the chance of her actually doing something in that time frame, he wouldn't want to be as far removed from the situation as the hotel room.

As she drifted off, Neji's hand played absently with the tie on her forehead-protector.

--------------------------------

"This is a lousy mission."

Naruto yawned and waited for his comment to sink into his comrade's thick head. No such luck. So he grinned and repeated himself, with emphasis.

"Shut up." Sasuke's dark hair was a mess. It was always a mess, due to the fact that his morning routine seemed to consist mostly of staggering out of bed and drinking coffee until he was sentient enough to go out and train, but it seemed even more messy right then.

They'd spent the night halfway up a tree in the middle of a torrential storm, sleeping so poorly that it was less tiring to remain awake and bicker. Sasuke's clothes were still wet, and the occasional trickle of water dripped off a leaf above him and slid insidiously down the back of his neck, leaving a sickly slick trail down his pale skin.

They'd had a very long night, and Naruto was hell-bent on making it a very, very long day.

"You agree though, right?" Naruto pressed. "It's a lame mission. Why would anybody send _us_, of all people, on a surveillance mission?"

"Because we were _requested_. Now shut up."

"Eh, I get that. They requested either of us, 'cuz you've got the fancy clan, and I've got the best mission record in the village. But then the old hag put _both_ of us on this mission, _together_," he pointed out, "which is where they start to lose me."

Sasuke had to agree. Silently, so it didn't qualify as actual conversation, but he did agree. There was nothing more stupid than putting him and Naruto in close proximity with nothing better to do than watch some paranoid old woman's house for forty-eight hours.

You couldn't come up with a better recipe for disaster by design.

Sasuke could have agreed with the idiot, and there wasn't really much to stop him. But it just wasn't right to break that kind of tradition, so he shrugged and grunted ambiguously. "Fine. Shut up."

Naruto had had plenty of practise not losing his temper at being told to shut up three times in as many minutes, and would not resort to something as childish as responding with, _make me_. He wouldn't. Really. No matter how tempting it was. And, hell yes, it was tempting.

Instead, he changed the subject, and thus the game. "So, you really miss your girlfriend this much, eh?"

Sasuke wavered, but managed not to lose his footing on the slippery bark. "What?"

"Yamanaka," Naruto rolled his eyes.

Sasuke opened his mouth to reiterate, _shut up, idiot_, but what came out was, "She's not my girlfriend." That slip let him know that he'd just screwed up. Well, okay, maybe it had something to do with the curve at the edges of Naruto's smile as well.

"She could be," the blond said, and Sasuke wondered what part of this conversation would turn out to be a trap. Then he shook the feeling off; this was Naruto, not Kakashi. "You should just hurry up and ask her out."

"Just shut up and watch the house, idiot," he growled.

"You went out with her once, right? It can't have been that bad, and she's hot, and, frankly, you need to get laid. Why not?" After almost a week of wheedling and teasing and arbitrary comments and the occasional insinuation that Naruto was quite happy to take her for himself if Sasuke didn't hurry the fuck up and do something about it (mostly met with scorn and derision, although occasionally found to cause a small crease in Sasuke's forehead), Naruto had fallen back on his last resort – cold, hard pragmatism.

While it actually seemed to work best at getting Sasuke to follow any plan of action, Naruto found that it lacked a certain appeal to him, and used it as little as possible.

Of course, telling Sasuke that, frankly, he needed to get laid, was singularly unhelpful in contributing to a positive reaction.

Sadly for Naruto, the rest of the mission, no matter how much he rambled or ranted or joked or talked, was spent blanketed in Sasuke's stony silence.

--------------------------------

Shikamaru yawned as the body in his arms stirred finally. "Got the info we need?" he asked.

Ino breathed a deep sigh at the safe, familiar feeling of her own body. Contrary to popular belief, the most challenging aspect of the _shintenshin_ _no jutsu_ was not the exertion of the technique itself, but rather the necessity for rapid adaptation to a body that did not belong to the user. It was one of the key reasons that Ino preferred using female bodies to males.

Sometimes, however, using a male body was unavoidable. She shifted weakly, unsure of her reintegration with her own body. "Yeah," she nodded, "a lot of work for not much gain, if you ask me," she added sourly, leaning back into Shikamaru's comfortably relaxed body for a long moment and trying to figure out which parts of her body were going to rebel.

Obviously, she thought to herself, she needed to train more. She could work on this with Shikamaru and Chouji, maybe. Male bodies to practise on.

It occurred to her briefly that she'd been a little left behind by the other girls she'd graduated with. There were very few of them who'd ever manage to match the boys in sheer physical strength, but they'd all been training hard, hard enough to mean that she'd need a lot of work to catch up, if that was what she was going to do.

She thought about it some more as Shikamaru prodded at her to get off him. There was no way she _couldn't_ catch up with Sakura, at least, and while she might never have Hinata's talents, she knew she could make herself a more valuable ninja, if she worked at it.

Ino raised herself carefully up from her position – who ever heard of a Leaf-nin falling out of a tree? – stretched out her limbs and nodded at Shikamaru. He sighed and rolled to his feet, took a deep breath and made the loud call of one of the regional birds three times in a row.

It was their signal, so Chouji would know to stop tagging the body that may or may not have been housing Ino and return to the meeting spot. Shikamaru said that there were more reliable and more accurate ways to communicate this, but that they required too much energy and effort, and his team mates were happy to take his word on it.

A responding call let them know that Chouji had received their message.

"Let's go," Ino said quietly, very aware of the patrols that skirted all hidden villages. She moved off as quickly and quietly as possible through the canopy, silent as a ghost through the treetops. Occasionally, she snagged a piece of clothing on a twig or leaf – another reminder of how very much she needed to stop working in the flower shop and do some training, or take on more missions.

She felt Shikamaru adjust behind her and didn't have to look over her shoulder to know that it was Chouji who made that nearby branch shake when he landed. At least the team dynamic was still working; it would have been hard to put that in jeopardy with her laziness, but she had worried for a moment.

"Ino! Slow down," Shikamaru called. He wasn't straining to keep up, not really, but he was going faster than she'd expected. "What's the rush?"

She shrugged. "Nothing," she responded, obediently slowing down.

Both of her team mates exchanged glances, the sort that meant that there was silent communication going on here that she wasn't a party to. When it was just Shikamaru who raised eyebrows and gave her odd looks, she could chalk it up to his being ridiculously perceptive, but when Chouji also knew something was up? It meant that she was just being transparent.

"Seriously. Nothing," she insisted, blue eyes narrowing dangerously.

They knew that look.

"Whatever," Shikamaru said with a dismissive shrug. Chouji took his cue from Shikamaru and didn't comment.

Ah, familiarity, Ino thought to herself. It was sort of funny how home travelled with her so much these days.

In some quiet recess of her mins, she resolved to get out and train more. There was no future for her in flower arranging, and she didn't want to be the one who dragged her team mates down; it was time to start pulling her weight again.

Her lips twisted into an involuntary smile as she wondered what they'd do without her.

Then she slipped.

She knew before she fell that she was going to fall, that split-second where she had to decide what to protect, where to throw her weight.

Then the air was whistling by her head and she landed with a crash and a sickening crack, to the forest floor.

--------------------------------

"It's not even that she's not doing anything interesting. It's that she's not doing anything _at all_," Tenten groused. "How much embroidery can you _do_ in a day, anyway?" she growled.

Neji, rubbing soft, soothing circles slowly against his temples, didn't really react. Tenten's complaint hung in the hot, sticky air for a moment before he took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

"How much embroidery can _you_ do in a day, or how much embroidery can _she_ do in a day?" he asked.

Tenten's lips curved up at the edges, just a little. She was glad to hear his voice again. She knew he was tired, and that he had a thing for complete and uninterrupted silence, but she liked to hear someone speak _occasionally_. Without Lee, however, she found that she had to fill those gaps herself, which had become somewhat more difficult to maintain.

"Actually," she said, "I think I said, "how much embroidery can _you_ do in a day"... which would be referring to _you_."

Neji made an inelegant noise in the back of his throat. "I hate to disappoint, but sewing has never really been one of my greatest talents," he deadpanned in response.

It startled a laugh from her, and she gave him a speculative look over her shoulder. "You're in a better mood," she remarked.

He shrugged, but made no further comment. Tenten took this lack of response in stride, stretching herself out and slinking over to him to flop to her back on the concrete roof. "Sooo hot," she muttered, and for the first time in the last few months, she wasn't talking about Neji.

There was a very small portion of their rooftop that collected afternoon shade, enough for two people if they stood back to back, and not much more. Neji had appropriated it as soon as it became available, huddling protectively around his pale, pale skin on the concrete. She didn't even begrudge him it; she'd seen what happened to his skin, even with the protective oils, when he spent too many hours in the blistering sunlight.

Now, however, she moved as close as possible, squishing into that tiny patch of blessed shade as far as she could. Neji made a disgusted noise as her overheated skin met his, and quickly peeled himself away.

She groaned. "I hate this entire bloody country," she informed him. He grunted, either in acknowledgement or agreement, she couldn't tell which. His skin was much cooler than hers, even just from sitting in the shade for an hour or two. She wrapped her hands around his forearm and buried her face in the crook of his neck, pressing herself against his naked torso and causing him further disgruntlement.

The coolness of his skin quickly dissipated as she heated it up, but she remained in that position far longer than she should have, breathing deeply. The smell of the spiced oils that were keeping him from baking combined with slick sweat and, under all of it, the sharp, cool scent of _Neji_, was almost enticing. Those thoughts led nowhere useful, and the thought of anything involving that much exertion under the rays of this sun made her slightly queasy, but she breathed deep all the same.

She grinned.

He must have felt it against his skin, because he tugged on her ear. "What're you smiling about?" he muttered sourly. She shook her head. A few loose strands of her hair stuck to his shoulder.

He went tense under her. She released his arm immediately. "A visitor." He jerked to his feet. Tenten stole his patch of shade while he was focusing beyond the walls of Mizuko's hideout.

"What's going on?"

"He's an assassin." She didn't ask how he knew. Anybody in the business could tell an assassin, sometimes because they looked so damn normal it was impossible for them to be anything else, and sometimes because they had that certain way of standing, of looking, of sitting, of moving that said, louder than any words, that they were killing for a living. That kind of lifestyle left its mark on everyone, just like a ninja's.

"Strange, though," she commented. "That she's moved in with the region's finest, but is still hiring second-rate killers."

"Oh, I wouldn't say second-rate," Neji's voice was almost a purr, low and sultry and warm with anticipation.

"Really." Tenten sat up straight.

"He looks like he'll put up quite the fight," Neji murmured.

"So... we just go and kill him?" Tenten asked. It didn't sound like a very good plan of action to her, but...

"No." Neji said, giving her a look that said she was very, very stupid for suggesting it. She let it slide. "It could be one of a number of things, so we should proceed with caution."

"Go on," Tenten relaxed back into her shady patch. "Dazzle me."

Neji snorted at this, but continued. "A, it's exactly what it looks like and she's hiring another assassin to kill Ishida. We kill him, problem solved. B, it's an attempt to draw anybody who might be watching her away to she can move to another safe place. One of us goes to kill him, the other watches her, problem still solved, and we cover both eventualities." He paused. "Or C, which is the worst-case scenario, where they knew she's being watched and are trying to draw us away, lead us into a trap and kill one or both of us."

Tenten winced. "Aren't you being just a _little_ paranoid?" she asked hopefully.

Neji raised an eyebrow at her over his shoulder. "You tell me."

"... asshole."

"Quite. What do you think?"

Tenten sighed deeply. "I think I should stay here and watch, and you should go after him, to cover possibilities A and B. Possibility C is something we can't really prepare for, so we shouldn't worry about it unless it comes up. While you would be the better choice for surveillance, and I might stand a better chance to take him out from a distance, but if it comes down to close combat at all, and he's as good as you think he is, you'll be in a better position than I would."

Neji considered all this as she said it, and finally inclined his head. "Yes, I'll do it."

Tenten nodded and settled down to watch their girl. The situation was suddenly serious, and she was more inclined to pay attention to watching the woman embroider if there was a hint that she might disappear from under their eyeballs.

When the "visitor" left, so did Neji.

Tenten moved at the same rate as her patch of shade, which made her keenly aware of the passage of time. Slowly, concern began to creep up on her.

Surely, _surely_, an hour was enough? Enough time to tag the man, confront him and dispose of him? She licked her lips. Not necessarily. Perhaps the man was putting up a good fight. That could take some time.

She shook the rising dread off and concentrated on the woman's chakra signature. It was weak like most untrained civilians', but oddly distinctive. It meant that she hadn't been replaced with a convenient log for Tenten's viewing pleasure.

Taking a deep breath, Tenten clenched her jaw, narrowed her eyes and firmly attributed the queasiness in her stomach to the heat. Tense and wary, she watched and waited.

Yes. The heat.

Where the hell was Neji?

--------------------------------

Another relatively short chapter, I'm afraid, but I've only just gotten my Balancing muse back... halfway through November, of course, just in time to completely interrupt my nano. That is so not surprising.

Anyway. Um... I don't know that I have too much to say at the moment, except perhaps that I understand if you think I'm evil for leaving this chapter here so you guys don't know what happens to Ino or Neji...

And aside from that, have a lovely summer... or winter, if you're elsewhere... or maybe I should say Christmas? But what if you don't celebrate Christmas? God knows I wouldn't if my family didn't insist... Hmm.

Have a lovely non-denominational end of year celebration, everyone!

There. Can't get more PC than that, can you?

- Yasmyn


	8. VIII Reverse Psychology

**Chapter Eight: Reverse Psychology**

See first chapter for disclaimer. Mammoth notes at the bottom, apologies in advance.

--------------------------------

Team seven was at the bridge at the appointed time again, although Sasuke appeared to be meditating calmly and Sakura had taken to keeping a decent book in her pack for the mornings just like these. The only member of their team that hadn't learnt to do something productive and _quiet_ with this time was Naruto, so the others took it in turns to entertain him, either through conversation or argument.

Still, conversation with Naruto didn't usually incite her to this level of gut-twisting dread. Oh, it made her want to smack him silly, of course, and her other team mates were so happy to oblige her on that point that she rarely had to do it herself anymore, but it didn't usually make her feel like she'd just – just been hit by one of the meaner genjutsu Sasuke had learnt in Sound.

She'd heard from Ino that Tenten had had to go through some sort of _examination_ when she'd started dating Neji, but she hadn't really expected –

"Ne, Sakura-chan, you'll help me, right?"

– to be confronted by Naruto's large, blue puppy-eyes and know deep in her soul that he was _so irrevocably dead_.

"Naruto..." she hesitated. "Um, How much do you really, _really_ love Hinata?" she asked.

He looked confused.

"I mean," she clarified, searching for that favourite phrase of Lee's, "would you 'give your life to protect her'?" It had been too long since she'd heard that. She'd become terribly spoilt, and had actually begun to miss being told she was a goddess for whom her particular, spandex-clad, knight in shining armour would die. More to the point, she was starting to miss _Lee_. She wanted to be caught up in his love affair for life again, inspired and enthused by his presence, warmed by his devotion.

Clearly, she needed to meddle in someone else's love life to make herself feel better about the situation. It wouldn't be long, she told herself. Another week, maybe, before he was back. And she was confident he would be back, despite her intimate knowledge that ninja routinely died on missions just like his, because, well – it was Lee. And he'd said he would. Unless there was actually _**no** **way**_ to survive, he would be back and bouncing.

No, seriously. If he _didn't_ get back in excellent condition, he might kill himself running those five hundred thousand laps of the village.

Expression clearing, Naruto laughed. "Of course I would! Hinata's my friend, you know!"

Well, if he said he'd die for her, he would. It was Naruto, and he wouldn't fake it. "... No problem, then," Sakura said.

Sasuke's snort of not-quite-hidden amusement caused Naruto to turn on him, and the regularly scheduled program of grandstanding and arguing resumed pace.

Sakura smiled, unfolding her book and allowing the sound of her boys arguing loudly in the background to fill her with a sense of peace and contentment. Later, she decided, after a long day of training and missions, she'd allow herself to panic about Naruto's impending demise.

--------------------------------

The worst possible result of the fall was, of course, the most likely to occur, despite the logical probability. Ino had never been a great believer in Murphy's Law, but she couldn't ignore its pertinence.

When she opened her eyes past the white flash of pain, she was watching a lone ant crawl over a dry leaf, but even when she couldn't see, she couldn't fail to notice the other presences in the forest. She heard Shikamaru's faint groan and knew that they were in trouble.

Nobody spoke. Nobody moved.

She rolled over.

When the sudden red haze at the edges of her vision faded, she saw something that made her wish she'd been knocked unconscious, or, even better, killed.

A tall, blank-eyed chunnin. All ninja got that look after a while, that bleak, empty look, but Ino had never seen it in the mirror, and had hoped that she'd never have to.

The chuunin was eyeing the trio like they posed a real threat. That in itself was enough to be a problem, because their group was not a battle-unit – they were strictly reconnaissance. But the woman was holding back, loosely defensive, eyes cool and calculating, hand resting on a weapon pouch, but not actively threatening–

–because the metallic snarl of sliding metal was coming from another source, Ino realised, angling her head. She could see now what had made Shikamaru groan, what had kept them all so still - the harsh patterns and whorls standing out in sharp contrast to the white background, a painted-on tiger's face, oddly serene in its stylized growl.

Strong summer sunlight cast its rays across the matte surface of an ANBU mask.

--------------------------------

Tenten did not know the _kage bunshin_ technique. She'd never really considered it one of her primary flaws before.

Tapping her nails nervously was not assisting, so she moved onto twirling long _senbon_ around between three of her fingers, like a performer with a cane. It was something she'd picked up during the exams at the academy, something Gai-sensei had tried to break her of, because nervous gestures were not allowed; they were identifiable even when the body making them was not.

She felt better with a weapon in her hand. She closed her eyes. She had a fixture on the woman's chakra signature. She wasn't going anywhere without Tenten knowing, even if she couldn't see her. It was just a pity she wouldn't be able to keep a lock on it if she started moving away from the area.

She spun the needle around and watched it glint in the sunlight with lazy, half-closed eyes. She focused on trying to look relaxed, on spinning her needle, on the chakra signature. Nothing held her attention.

Two hours.

Neji would kill her if she left her post out of some sentimental desire to make sure he was okay just because they were having sex. Not much sex, mind you, her libido supplied grumpily.

She tried to think about it objectively, like she might have a few months ago, but she could only compare to her memory of how she was thinking back then, and that yardstick was just a little fuzzy. She'd made the cardinal mistake and blurred the lines between team mate and lover, and now she didn't understand where she stood. Her hesitation could get them all killed. She had to _decide_, decide _right_, and decide _fast_.

She'd have gone after Lee.

Neji wasn't Lee. Neji was fiercely independent, and Neji was contemptuous of his companions' abilities, sometimes to the point of open mistrust. Neji did not need anybody to save his hide, and Neji didn't really care about the team dynamic. He didn't need anybody to look after him.

To summarise, Neji was terrified at the thought of needing help.

He sure as hell wouldn't ask for it. Or thank her for it. But that didn't mean he didn't need it. She knew that; she'd always known that. From the first day they met and he told her he didn't care about her, didn't care about anybody, and that they'd only hold him back.

Tenten's gut said that Neji was in trouble. Her head said that was ridiculous, because she couldn't _know_ something like that, and her wallet was already aching, but she knew what she was going to have to do. Instinct had always served her well in the past.

She should have gone after him an hour ago. Not because he was her lover, or because she didn't trust him. Because he was her _team mate_, and he might need backup.

Lousy ninja left their missions unfinished, or jeopardised them needlessly. Only the lowest of the low didn't take care of their team mates.

Decided, she silently flicked the silhouette of Mizuko the bird and left her post, taking to the rooftops.

--------------------------------

"Is that all you've got?" Naruto roared, bouncing back from the bone-crushing blow. Sasuke had delivered and melded back into the shadows, something Naruto still had difficulty with. It was a tactic he'd been adopting more and more often in their sparring matches, because Naruto could afford to take more damage than he could.

Sasuke was slowly proving that he was growing up enough to have more brains than pride. Kakashi would be so proud, if he ever turned up.

It was clear he was having a grand time getting the shit beaten out of him, so Sasuke answered the challenge, blurring out of the shadows cast by the forest to execute a flurry of blows that only connected about fifty percent of the time but dealt enough in damage to slow him down.

He jerked away in a burst of speed that would have made Lee jealous, Naruto hot on his tail. He needed to be faster; he healed fast, but he couldn't take the same amount of damage Naruto could.

Although, since Naruto got a _hell_ of a lot of help, Sasuke considered the accelerated healing a form of cheating... and thus his rightful handicap – one that _might_ have put them on the same level. If he was feeling generous, or terribly diplomatic, which was not often.

The trunk of the tree behind him split into a multitude of splinters when hit by a punch that was intended for his head. The noise from the rain of chips – lethal in their own right – made Naruto's lips curve into a cocksure smirk and Sasuke's eyes glitter like sunstruck pools of congealed blood.

Sasuke raised one arm to block a splinter from the tree. His eyes flickered lazily to the rapidly-welling blood where it struck and he flicked it out with a negligent shake of his arm.

Naruto grinned at him form his tree branch.

"Running, scaredy cat?"

Sasuke snorted. "From you?"

If possible, Naruto's lips curved even more, and Sasuke just knew he was about to say something he'd have to make him regret. "Well, we all know you're already running scared from Sakura's friend –" he dodged the fireball easily – Sasuke's fire attacks weren't really meant to be used as face-to-face techniques like that, but it sure as hell shut him up, along with starting a nasty forest fire they maybe could have done without in the dead of summer.

That wasn't the _point_, though, he thought as he twisted to shove a kunai up Naruto's spine, kind of disappointed when the idiot managed to dodge it. He was _not_ running scared. He didn't _need_ her, so he wouldn't _have_ her, and, besides, even if he _did_ need to get laid – which he _didn't,_ because Naruto was just a stupid pervert and what the _hell_ would he know anyway – it wasn't fair to lead a girl on like that, so –

Was that what it had come down to? That it wasn't fair on _her_? Because he didn't _care_ about her.

... He _was_ running scared.

He _certainly_ didn't care about her. And he'd _prove_ it.

CRUNCH.

"Oi, bastard, what the hell was that!?" Naruto bellowed about an inch from his nose. "You can't expect me to pull _all_ the time, dumbass!"

_Naruto_ had not only _noticed_ that he'd spaced out, but he'd noticed with enough time to pull the punch. The proof was undeniable – if he hadn't, Sasuke's malar bone would have been shattered, rather than beginning to sport an impressive bruise.

As he started yelling back, he made a note – sparring matches, no matter how dumb or inferior his opponent, were not the time to have epiphanies.

--------------------------------

Hinata really was an excellent host. Sakura had skipped out on training to catch her. Kakashi hadn't rebuked her; she wasn't one of his genin anymore, no matter how much or how little had changed between them.

It was how she found herself waiting for her host to finish preparing tea and kneeling uncomfortably. Hinata had accepted her arrival with all the grace of someone who had actually been expecting her, whisking her away from the dull-eyed branch house woman who had opened the door for her.

Apparently Hinata had her own apartment within the complex, something that made this visit infinitely easier; she wasn't sure she wanted any curious relatives overhearing them, and Hinata had assured her that it was the height of rudeness to look inside another's home without express permission.

Once she was in her element, Hinata moved with a simple, natural grace that made Sakura feel clumsy and out of place. This was ridiculous – she knew she wasn't clumsy (clumsy ninja had very short careers), and she knew she hadn't made any huge social transgressions since coming to the door. She was even sitting properly, well-practised in _seiza_; her parents had demanded that their daughter know how to act in "company". She'd never really considered Hinata "company" before, but the Hyuuga compound was grand, imposing, and actually contained servants – civilian members of the branch house, the lowest of the low – and it had had its intended affect upon her.

She worried what sort of affect it would have on Naruto.

He certainly wouldn't be wowed by status.

He might demand that they stop treating certain factions of their family as servants.

Okay, so he might do a bit more than make demands.

Sakura stifled a groan and searched for a distraction. She'd need to allow for some polite small-talk before she dived in, and hysterical was no way to go about it, especially not with someone as sensitive as Hinata.

She couldn't help glancing around Hinata's quarters. They were mostly coloured in various shades of black, white and soft greys. Although spacious, what she could see was sparsely furnished, with gentle lines and few adornments. She noticed that there was a bunch of slightly-wilted wildflowers in a vase on the low table. They were all the more striking because they seemed to be the only splash of colour.

How a person furnished their living space said a lot about them, but all Sakura could tell from her surroundings was that Hinata was very repressed and extremely neat.

She didn't voice her thoughts aloud, but as Hinata lowered the teapot to the table in front of her, gracefully sank to her knees and poured out two cups of tea, she swallowed a sigh.

"Thank you, Hinata-san," she murmured, accepting her cup and bringing it to her lips.

Hinata offered her a smile in response, but did not commence with the polite small-talk Sakura had been anticipating. Perhaps she was simply more confident in her own home, or perhaps she felt that she'd honoured social obligations enough by making tea and inviting Sakura in, but she took a single, perfunctory sip of her tea and said, "What did you want to talk about, Sakura-san?"

Whatever her reason, Sakura appreciated her frankness. It meant there would be less beating around the bush for both of them. "Naruto said he was being formally introduced to your father," she said with no preamble.

Hinata closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes," she said. "I understand now." Something like relief flashed past her pale eyes when she reopened them. "To tell you the truth, Sakura-san," she confided in her quiet way, "I'm glad he decided to tell you. Naruto... he's not – well, he is – he's wonderful," she blushed faintly, apparently unable to come up with a more specific descriptor. Sakura didn't blame her. Naruto, as a rule, was best described as Something Else. "...But he doesn't always leave the best first impression," she admitted very quietly, as though she was loth to make that criticism.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. That was putting it mildly, she thought, remembering her own early days with Naruto. A few snide comments came to mind, courtesy of spending too much time on mission with Sasuke. "Believe me, I noticed," she said instead with a smile. "So, what do we need to work on? I mean, how "formal" is formal?"

Hinata looked away for a moment and took a gulp of her tea, but not as though she'd really tasted it. "Um," she hesitated. "It's... it's fairly formal," she trailed off.

Sakura got that sinking feeling in her gut. "I see."

"He... Father... Father doesn't have the best opinion of him, because of the – um. Well." That was interesting; Sakura didn't think Hinata was aware of Naruto's... _tenant_, but apparently she not only knew, but was also aware that Sakura had to know. She filed that information away for later. "I believe he is willing to be open-minded about it, but I'm not – I'm not Neji. I have... _responsibilities_." She licked her lips. "He doesn't approve. I – I know Naruto can win anybody over, given enough time," she blushed again, stronger this time, and Sakura almost felt inclined to smile with her, "but..."

Sakura sighed. "He'll need to know how to sit, how to eat, how to speak..." she ticked off on her fingers. She frowned. "Should he bring a gift?"

Hinata's eyes strayed to the flowers between them. "Ah, not necessarily," she murmured. "He won't look any the worse for not bringing a gift, and Naruto..." she frowned prettily, searching for some very polite way of pointing out that the idiot had no idea about most social norms, but Sakura waved it off. She knew. She knew well.

"Fine," she interrupted. "When does this – this introduction – happen?"

Hinata smiled faintly, albeit with a sharp edge. "When I told Father, I requested that Neji-nii-san be there... so not until he arrives home from this mission."

Sakura thought about that for a moment. Lee had said something about returning after his client had been wedded, which meant they had at least five days, perhaps a week, depending on where the team had been sent, before disaster struck.

She nodded slowly. "We have time. We can get him remotely presentable. Way more time than Tenten did, and she and Ino did okay on their own, right?"

Hinata nodded with relief and optimism, conveniently forgetting the near-disaster of Tenten's introduction to Hiashi and how it had only been tempered by the implication that Neji had found someone – someone female, and for all appearances fertile – willing to put up with his personality for long enough to breed from his bloodline. Or at least long enough to _conceive_.

--------------------------------

The rooftops were a blur beneath Tenten's feet for the first few miles; death-defying, adrenalin-rushing leaps and jumps interspersed with brief, terrifying flashes of the ground below. It rushed up at her, filling her gut with the sickening feeling of falling, and then she found purchase on another roof, landing with a crash and sprinting on.

Her boots clattered loudly, but they had a decent grip on them. She was not trying to be quiet, anyway.

Neji hadn't left tracks – not even traces of chakra from the leap between rooftops. It meant that on the off-chance that he'd be incapacitated or killed, the person he was fighting wouldn't be able to track him back to find _her_.

That he was considering defeat at all made Tenten's gut clench painfully.

She crashed on, hoping that by following his general direction and by virtue of her high vantage point, she'd be able to garner some clue as to their location. Her luck had sucked recently, but it was about to change; a figure was visible on the skyline, running fast away from the centre of the city.

There was no way to be certain that that was the assassin, but a roof-jumping man in this vicinity of a civilian city was worth checking out. She concentrated chakra to her legs and feet and took off at a pace that would have made her teacher cry tears of masculine pride.

The figure dropped below the silhouette of the buildings, sharp and black in relief. The shadows were foreboding, warm black pools that grasped at her every time she had to jump one, but the sunset burned red in her eyes.

She made her decision and dipped into the shadows after him, bending into a crouch on landing. The alley she'd landed in was empty, roughly cobbled, the smell of garbage sweltering rising languidly from the dumpsters in the heat. She couldn't see the man, for a second she thought she'd lost him, but a hoarse shout from a neighbouring alley alerted her to his presence.

She approached the corner of the alleyway warily. She could hear the crash and muffled grunts of a serious fight. Stealthily, she slipped around the corner and into the rotten-scented shadows offered by another dumpster. She didn't like the ensemble she'd been forced into by local customs, but she had to admit that it certainly allowed for a range of movement.

She had indeed found the fight she'd been interested in. Neji had evidently caught up to the man shortly before her.

She looked them both over. It was obvious to her now that the man was a ninja – a good one. You just didn't get that sort of lazy flow to your movement much before jounin-level. He was tiring out slowly, obviously at least as unused to the heat as they were, but he was also obviously chosen for his ability with combat; they'd known they were going to be meeting ninja. She couldn't tell where he was from, but he was obviously uncertain as to the bloodline limits of the clans of Konoha, which was all Neji was clinging to.

That Neji wasn't wearing a shirt made the bloody gash across the joint between shoulder and neck stand out in stark relief against the absolute white of his skin. At first glance, Tenten blanched and hoped it was one of those wounds that just _looked_ really bad.

After a moment of observation, she knew it wasn't.

It looked like it had been a hit from the above right, designed to slice through the torso on a diagonal – a botched dodge. It was trailing thick ribbons of red down his chest, enough that his clothing was heavy with blood in some places, dripping little pools onto the ground. His feet were still firmly on the stones, planted steadily apart in his customary taijutsu position, eyes focused and intent on his target. Tenten was heartened to see this, but she wondered how long it would last.

He needed to finish this quickly, and pray that the weapon hadn't been poisoned. His hair was coming loose, clinging to the sheen of sweat across his shoulders and neck. The veins of the _byakugan _were open to their fullest, pumping much-needed chakra and blood to the eyes through pathways that were already burnt out.

His fast breathing was evidence to his fast pulse, which meant he would be starting to feel dizzy with blood loss.

Tenten wasn't sure what difference she'd make, but she was glad that she'd come. Neji, no matter how disinclined he was to admit it, was injured and outclassed here.

A thought of jumping up and righteously riding to the rescue in the midst of the mêlée flashed through Tenten's mind for a moment. She discarded it quickly – she was good, but she wasn't as good as Neji, and he was struggling to lay effective hits.

She did have some advantages, however. They were two, he was one. That was two sets of arms, legs and seal-making hands, two minds, two targets. She licked her lips and forced her heartbeat lower. Practise. She was also ninety-nine percent certain that the man didn't know she was there; she'd been watching, and even the elite usually weren't that good at acting.

Now. How to make those advantages work for her?

What she needed to do was hope that Neji would see her – likely, given how much extra chakra he was channelling to his freakishly perceptive eyes – and manoeuvre the other ninja into a position where Tenten could aim a clear shot.

Basically, she had to be patient and trust in his abilities.

Tenten ground her teeth quietly to herself.

It was surprisingly short. It took Neji roughly three seconds to notice her. Three seconds was forever when fighting to survive. His eyes widened slightly, although it was hard to tell where he was looking. She wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been familiar with his expressions.

The other ninja – jounin, Tenten was fairly certain now, because no chuunin _she _knew was paying that much attention to details in a fight – seemed to realise something was up if his sudden tension was any indication. He didn't give any sign that her hiding place was no longer safe, however, and he had to concentrate again when Neji dove back into the fray.

Their small alleyway was suddenly filled with the sounds of a fight. They were noises any ninja knew; the sharp intake of breath as lungs strained to meet the needs of the body, the nerve-twisting _clank_ of a strike that almost hit, the slithering crunch of a sandal sliding over wayward dirt and blood.

Neji lost his footing on the slippery ground and staggered to the side; blood loss was taking its toll. The veins around his eyes faded back into his skin momentarily, eyes flickering. Tenten felt herself go wire-tense. If he couldn't do it, she'd have to take the chance and hope the element of surprise would be enough. But, no, he took another step back in the guise of trying to regain his balance.

The assassin stepped forward, eyes intent on his kill. A moment later, he staggered. A shuriken out of nowhere had left a jagged tear through his thigh and spun onwards to embed itself in the opposite wall. He took his eyes off Neji for a second to search for Tenten, who emerged from her hiding place. The split-second of inattention was all Neji needed. He darted forward and struck, in quick succession, three points in the man's neck, followed by a twist that would probably crush the brainstem.

The other ninja dropped like a stone, hitting the floor of the alley with a dull, clanking thud.

Adrenalin made her hands shake. She fought down the bile that rose in her throat every time; it was her prize for winning

Neji crouched warily and felt for a pulse. When he didn't find one, he took a deep breath and forced his eyes to cooperate for just another moment. Watching, Tenten saw him flinch as the _byakugan_ remerged.

Finally content that their enemy was dead, Neji touched the wound through his thigh. It was still spilling blood, too fast not to have hit the femoral artery. He looked up at Tenten. "Looks like your reputation's still intact," he murmured softly.

Tenten snorted. "I could hardly have missed from that angle." She said, then offered her hand to help him up. He looked at it for a second like he wasn't quite sure what to do with it. Finally, he reached up slowly and grasped it, using her body like an anchor to steady him on his feet.

"Good fight," he said, staring at the body blankly with that complete non-expression so many ninja cultivated. Tenten wondered if he was thinking that they'd just killed again, snuffed out another candle. Did he have a family? Friends? Who would be bereft by the lasting consequences of this confrontation and its messy, abrupt conclusion?

Then, _stop snivelling – he's probably just trying not to faint! _She set her mind to business. "Shut up and let me –"

"I'll survive for a little while," he overrode her, tearing off some of the dead man's shirt and using it to apply pressure to the bleeding gash. "We need to make sure he's not left lying around, then go back and check that she's still there. He's a Mist-nin. Do we dispose of his body ourselves, or wait for their hunter-nin?"

Neji never did bother remembering the diplomatic relations between countries he wasn't personally affiliated with. "We dispose of it," Tenten sighed. She wanted to argue that they needed to patch him up _first_, but knew from experience that he wouldn't let her do anything about his injuries until the job was finished. But she could curtail the amount of damage he'd do himself between now and when they could patch him up. "Or, rather, _I_ dispose of it."

"...fair enough," he said, slumping against the wall of the alley. Tenten shot him a concerned look. He raised an eyebrow. "If you have time to give me that look, I believe you should be tending to that," he made a lazy gesture towards the body.

"Alright," she said. She stretched her arms and cracked her knuckles before commencing the dirty part of her job.

The man did not seem to possess any particular bloodline limits. Tenten was grateful; it meant she didn't have to bring any parts of him home for examination. It was a small mercy, as there were many other problems with the job she'd set herself.

She searched him for useful supplies. He had soldier pills, some extremely basic first aid equipment – handy for them, since it meant they wouldn't have to run back to the hotel room for a kit, and what kind of idiots wandered into a fight and left the specially prepared first aid kits at home? – his contract, which she gave to Neji to keep his attention, although it didn't really say anything other than the obvious, a set of summoning scrolls and a bunch of weapons that were in good condition, but not worth keeping.

Tenten finished this, removed his forehead-protector from around his waist and set it aside. She dug around through what few supplies they'd had on them, and found nothing resembling the fire-seals she'd need.

Still, there was plenty of blood around to write with. She lifted him, pulled him to a cleaner area of ground and began making the symbolic patterns representative of seals down his body and along the ground around him. It was a high-level fire technique, the very one the Uchiha clan had used for the same activities in their days as enforcers.

Finally, she bagged the forehead protector, helped Neji to stand, and moved them both out of range. Tenten's chakra was not the unlimited depository enjoyed by what seemed to be most of the males of her generation, but her control of it was excellent – excellent enough to find, lift and aim literally dozens of weapons from a distance.

The lick of chakra used to spark the seals she'd drawn tied them to her core so they could drain her reservoir as much as necessary for the technique. The moment she allowed that to happen, she was committed to the attempt. That was why academy students and genin were not taught high-level, chakra-draining techniques like the _kage bunshin_ – once a person was committed, it was nearly impossible to divert the drain on his or her chakra. Once all of a person's chakra was drained, the body started burning itself up to produce more.

Tenten had nothing to fear from this technique, however. The body went up in flames as though it had been doused in kerosene, filling the air with the singular, increasingly familiar, stench of burning flesh. The man had had little in the way of hair. If she closed her eyes and ignored that the convection currents from her own chakra had produced a small tornado of fire, she could mistake the smell for freshly-done hamburgers. Tenten had never really liked barbeques anyway.

"Alright," she said once her unnatural fire had turned the body of the man to so much carbon. It hadn't left so much as a tooth, although the walls of the alley and the dumpsters within were looking the worse for wear, scorched and blackened. Oh, well. "Still lucid?"

"Who do you think I am?" Neji snarled after a short pause.

Tenten closed her eyes and prayed for patience in the face of his overwhelming arrogance. She could have pointed out that _he_ was leaning on _her_ and had lost most of his blood over the past five minutes, but she didn't. He was injured, and he'd just had to be, well, rescued. For someone whose greatest fear seemed to be interdependence, that was a lot to swallow.

"You're Hyuuga Neji," she soothed. "And as such, I expect you to stay conscious long enough for us to get away from here before the hunter-nin show up."

"Don't patronise me!" he snapped.

Tenten sighed, shifting his not-quite-dead weight into a more comfortable position as he leaned on her, at least allowing him the illusion of standing on his own. She wondered what the hell she was supposed to say. There weren't really many other options, here.

"All right, then. Shut up and stay conscious, or I won't bother treating your dead arse. Got it?"

He huffed a little and proceeded to sulk.

Tenten rolled her eyes. She just couldn't win.

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Yay! I'm back (again)! And, yeah, it's been _ages_, I know. That's why I made this chapter longer, so you got more Balancing (and more scenes with Neji and Tenten, because I had a couple of requests for that) in one hit, even though I'm really lazy. :P

Anyway, the rest of this note is pretty much random ranting, so you can ignore it if you want to. _Just make sure to review on your way out!_

Oh, _so_ irritated. I had five-hundred words of Ino and Sakura talking about Naruto's upcoming demise at the hands of Hinata's not-really-protective-but-appalled-just-on-principle-daddy, and then I realised – INO'S NOT THERE, BECAUSE SHE'S BUSY BEING CONFRONTED BY SUSPICIOUS ANBU!! dies God, I'm dumb. So I replaced it with that Sakura and Hinata scene. Hope you liked it.

Anyway. A couple of comments, mostly on my appalling Sasuke-characterisation these days – writing the Naruto and Sasuke scenes is actually kind of hard, because although I know that Sasuke's an asshole, I have trouble not finding him very, very endearing when with Naruto... and that makes me somehow want to descend into fluff... you know?

So, please be gentle, but _do_ tell me which parts of his characterisation have been unforgivable this far, or even the parts of his characterisation you liked thus far.

And just in case some of those belated reviews I got were actually recent, fluffy SasuSaku feels to me (me, not you. You can feel however you want about it - I certainly don't care) like it belittles both halves of the relationship by undermining the strength of Sakura's character and turning Sasuke into something he's _not_ – that is, anything but an uncommunicative, emotionally constipated bastard – and I won't be writing it. Thanks. )

And now, I'm done ranting. Reviews are loved, and usually answered. If I haven't answered your reviews yet, it's either because I'm worried your spelling is contagious, or because you haven't been signed in!

Farewell for another goddess-knows-how-long, my oh-so-patient readers. heart


	9. IX False Security

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Hi, guys. I'm really sorry for the long wait, but the next chapter is out! If you're still interested in this story, please encourage me to write more with many constructive reviews, ne?

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**Chapter Nine**

The worst had happened: they had taken the bait, and Mizuko was now the only person in the building – the assassin had left. The decoy had done his part, and his death was not much of a comfort to Tenten, who had to take care of Neji _before_ anything else could be done.

Tenten was not a medic. Her ability to take care of Neji's injuries extended to antiseptic and bandages and hoping that his own ability to judge (and alter) the chakra flow of his body would steer him clear of any major problems. He had argued, once the bandages were tied off, that they had to try to track the assassin first and foremost, but his protests waned about halfway through the journey back to their room, and she had eschewed caution in favour of speed.

Tenten had left Neji staring at the ceiling of their empty, impersonal hotel room. She made her way across the well-spaced rooftops of this strange, burning land, her feet moving automatically even as her stomach plunged at the dizzying glimpses of the ground between roofs.

She used the pressure of expelled chakra to slow her fall when she dropped to the ground, and jogged the rest of the way to the relay post, where she located a suitable messenger bird. Her "code" was nothing more than elaborate shorthand, but on the upside, it would not take long for Lee to figure it out. The bird fluttered away in a flutter of feathers and indignant squawking.

"Well," she murmured with a sigh, "we'll see." She just had to hope that the bird got there before the assassin. With a lift from a convenient window-shade, Tenten boosted herself back onto the roofs, and ended up sliding into their room through the window.

Neji was conscious, which she supposed was a good thing. "You should go and collect her," he said immediately upon her entry.

"Mizuko?" Tenten asked.

He grunted. His eyes moved slowly; open, blink, open. She frowned, feeling the vague urge to be staying there. When it came to being injured, he was almost as bad as Lee. Well, not quite _that_ bad. Lee could never quite be convinced that injury was not a problem for mind over matter. But Neji was bad enough.

"And what would we do with her? We have to sleep sometime. I think it would be better to leave her where she is for the moment, keep an eye on her. Even better if we can convince her to think that we've headed off after her hired help."

Neji sighed. "If you want," he mumbled, closing his eyes.

They didn't open. Tenten felt her eyebrows rise, mostly of their own volition. _If she wanted_? She scratched the back of her neck and came to sit by him on the bed. His breath hitched as the bed made a valley where she settled.

She hesitated before asking, but couldn't help herself. "You want painkillers?"

His eyes flickered open. "I don't need painkillers," he ground out.

"Why, were you saving them for some worse injury?" Tenten asked dryly. Not that there wasn't a "worse injury" possible, but rather that if he did that, there would _always_ be some worse injury waiting in ambush just beyond the horizon. She sighed. "Okay, whatever. You know where they are. I'm going to check on Mizuko."

Neji made a vague, assenting noise. Tenten got up, ignoring how he didn't quite flinch as the bed moved, and wondered about the wisdom of letting him go to sleep. A slash-and-hack, traditional kind of fighter herself, she had little understanding of the finer points of the human body, excepting small facts like, "stab here for massive blood loss". She was good at stabbing things and she'd found herself a nice niche as the rare female weapons specialist – but she made a note to herself to pay more attention the next time Gai-sensei tried to teach her basic first aid.

Presently, she shrugged it off – Neji knew what he was doing. She took off over the roofs again, the sun an unrelenting heat on her back and shoulders. She had work to do.

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Ino took a deep breath and slowly inched herself to a crouch. The ANBU allowed this with only the smallest flinch of a movement, but at that tiny change, they all froze. Nobody wanted to die, least of all Ino, who had only recently decided to become a better ninja.

The irony was not lost on her. But she was on her toes, her fingertips pressed to the ground so that they could see she wasn't trying to make any seals. The forest had gone so silent that she could hear Chouji breathing. Shikamaru was always quieter, less inclined to unnecessary movements by his very nature. Her senses told her very little about his whereabouts in relation to her, but experience said that he would be close by, sort of off to the side, waiting. Waiting for her cue. He may have been the tactician, but didn't she start everything? She motivated, he directed.

She licked her lips. The silence was killing her.

They stayed. They waited.

Was _everybody_ waiting for her to give them a hint? She scowled. "Well?" she growled at the masked person. Man. Or a broad-shouldered, well-built woman. The long hair trickled down the person's back in a tangled ponytail; it threw her off. But then, her father had long, shining hair. He was ANBU. No, definitely male.

The Chuunin cleared her throat. "Policy is that spies are killed on sight," she said. Her voice and expression were so bland – _there's a rock in my way, so I'm going to walk around it_.

Ino swallowed. "Your policy sucks."

"Ino," Shikamaru mumbled. He sounded no more annoyed than if there had been a mosquito in his water glass. Was everybody passé about dying except her?

She looked at him. He _looked_ vaguely annoyed. Vaguely. More like he was contemplating a nap, really.

Then his eyes flickered to the masked man, and she understood.

She turned back with a huff. "Well, it does," she muttered.

_Three,_ she counted internally, steeling herself for action. _Two_, she thought, as the ANBU took a step forward, a steady, light step that prepared him for greater speeds.

_One!_

She hurled herself forward – into the Chuunin, just as Shikamaru's shadow imitation took hold, and the ANBU froze. "Chouji!"

But she could already hear the crash and clatter, the destruction of his specific kind of taijutsu, and she had more important things to worry about – like taking on another Chuunin with a broken arm.

It really couldn't be done. She made sure to get in at least one slash_ somewhere_ while the other woman was off-guard, and then bolted for home. The Chuunin took off after her, clattering; nobody was as at home in the trees as Konoha-nin. _Nobody._ She used that to her advantage, using chakra to quiet her passing, using her good arm for grip and balance, twisting, turning.

She dodged a low-hanging branch and leapt back up, hearing a satisfying thwack behind her. She forced the seals for a clone out of her unresponsive fingers and used the kawirimi to slither down to the ground. She heard the woman crashing after the clone above her, and breathed a silent sigh of relief at having lost her. Reconnaissance units were usually well-suited to losing pursuers, and with her, Shikamaru and Chouji --

Ino jogged back to where Shikamaru was working up a sweat. Chouji was swirly-eyed against a tree; evidently the elite ninja had managed some way to divert his attack despite the shadow imitation technique. To be expected. She was not worried about Chouji – he was not terrible destructible.

"_Shintenshin no jutsu_," she mumbled, feeling a strange tingle in her hands as she forced chakra up her arm to make the fingers work, a minor variant of the puppeteer technique employed so commonly in Sand.

The feeling of her body slumping to the ground and the accompanying painful throb of her arm was distant, and, for a moment she had no substance, just a darkness of the mind and pure intent, and then she was inhabiting a new body, infusing, invading like the most severe virus. The mind inside fought, but she had improved at least _one_ technique since the wake-up call that had been her first Chuunin exam.

The ANBU was male, not her form of choice, but that was okay for the present. She looked at Shikamaru. "I can stop the technique from a few miles," she said, sounding more confident than she felt. She could _stop_ the technique, but it would be really inconvenient if she couldn't find her _own_ body.

Still, she could just find someone else, and use their senses to locate her body. The thought cheered her, as did the fully-functioning body of the ANBU. Very fit, really. Shikamaru nodded his assent, prodded Chouji into wakefulness with his toe, tossed her body none-too-gently over his shoulder and headed off in the direction of home.

"Watch where you wave that!" She shrieked after him, shaking one fist. Her intonation was wrong for the deep male voice that rumbled from her throat.

He waved one hand at her and she could almost hear him rolling his eyes. With a sigh that didn't sound like hers, Ino closed her – _his_ – eyes and waited. And waited. The duration of her technique wasn't quite an hour, but she could give them at least that much of a head start. As long as Shikamaru didn't decide to take a nap on the way, they would be fine.

On a whim, she climbed the tallest tree she could find, and disconnected her technique in mid-air. Hopefully, the ANBU wouldn't get his bearings back before he hit the ground. Then she was rushing through darkness until she hit her own body, and opened her eyes to see the ground flying past some twenty feet below.

"Shikamaru," she said through clenched teeth, swallowing back a desire to be sick from the jolting motion of his run, the sharp pain up her arm, the strange vantage point and the bony shoulder in her stomach.

He put her down on the next large branch and took off without a word. Ino took a moment to reorient herself, and then she began to run, too. She wasn't bleeding, but her arm was killing her. She occupied her mind on the way back to the hidden village by wondering if it would be less painful to go slow and get to help _later_, or to jump around at high speeds in the trees and get there sooner. By the end, she was voting for slower and later, but it was the end then.

And she had worse things to worry about.

Like what the Hokage might do to them when she realised that they'd given themselves away. Ino only hoped that their diplomacy in not killing either of the people who had noticed them might prevent the slightly frosty relations between villages from breaking out into all-out war.

Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino arrived at the tower to report at the same time. Shikamaru's expression hadn't really changed, although he had commented on her being the most troublesome woman ever upon entering the village and eyed her arm without saying anything helpful. Chouji remained silent, because he didn't have anything helpful to add. It was a simple kind of logic, and one that Ino appreciated just then.

But her report was not met with any yelling or throwing of saki bottles. It was unexpected, and disturbing to see Tsunade take it all in stride. She waved Ino off to the infirmary, apparently without much concern for the political ramifications of what had transpired.

"We're lucky," Shikamaru yawned, "she feels sorry for Ino." Chouji seemed to consider this, and shrugged in something that was either agreement or disinclination to argue.

Ino growled. "She does not."

Neither of them responded, although Shikamaru cut her a dubious sideways glance through the middle of a large yawn.

It did not help that they ran into Sasuke on the administration level, and had to navigate getting through a single door, going in opposite directions. He brushed her arm. She made a tiny noise and flinched away from him.

He turned to her, dark eyes narrowed and angry, and –

He snatched her upper arm. Because he wasn't an enemy.

She exhaled, shaking. Just off mission, nobody's nerves were rock-steady.

But his long fingers – fine fingers, precise, dexterous fingers, she noticed in an idle glance, and couldn't help but _wonder_ – were wrapped around her arm well away from the break. He watched the limb for a moment, as though it held the answer to some very important question. He met her eyes in a brief second, in which everything ceased to exist for Ino, and the rest of the world became annoying white noise.

Then he made a noise somewhere between anger and derision and looked away. He left Ino staring blankly after him.

Sakura touched her other shoulder with a gentle smile. "Don't worry about it," she whispered. "He's always a bit weird after an interview with Ibiki-san," she said.

"Sakura... I didn't notice you there," Ino blinked.

Sakura frowned at her. "Get to the infirmary if you're in shock," she admonished, then turned away and jogged to catch up with her team mate. He strode ahead, shoulders stiff with tension and angry pride. Ino watched him until he turned a corner.

"Ibiki-san?" she repeated.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "You didn't think they'd just let him back into Konoha and give him free reign, did you?"

She hadn't actually thought about it. "I guess not," she frowned. "I wonder how often he has to have interviews."

"Every three or so months."

"And how do you know that?" she turned and demanded, attention diverted now that its object had disappeared from sight. "Isn't it classified?"

But she was swept away in a sudden whirl of light, colour and noise as Inoshi appeared out of _nowhere_ in a paternal ambush. Ino found herself blinking under the harsh halogen of the infirmary lights in about half a second, and had to give up questioning Shikamaru, as he had been left behind in administration.

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'Til next time!


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